MARSEILLE, France: Residents of a poor neighbourhood of Marseille forced Roma migrants from their camp and set it ablaze in a vigilante eviction that French rights groups feared could set a precedent.
France is home to some 15-20,000 Roma, most of whom come from Romania and Bulgaria. Tensions over illegal camps, often on the outskirts of cities, have grown since the Socialist government made it harder for police to remove them.
Furious over a spate of robberies they blamed on the Roma squatters and unwilling to wait for a formal eviction, locals surrounded the makeshift camp in the north of the port city of Marseille on Thursday and ordered its 40 inhabitants to leave.
When the camp was cleared, they set fire to what remained: a few tents and washing machines.
“People say the government isn’t doing anything so they take the situation into their own hands - this is what we had feared the most,” said Fathi Bouaroua, an official at the Abbe Pierre Foundation, which tends to the homeless.
President Francois Hollande’s four-month-old government has cleared dozens of camps and deported hundreds of Roma.
But after criticism of former Nicolas Sarkozy’s hard line on Roma camps, it also made evictions more difficult - requiring a court order where previously an edict from a regional prefect had been enough.
The vigilantes in Marseille acted after being told they would have to wait for a court order, which could take weeks.
Locals had informed police of their plans. While officers were present they made no attempt to stop the eviction, which took place without violence, a police source said. Reuters
