Gypsies hide as France dismantles camps

GENNEVILLIERS, France -- The camps weren't much to begin with: No electricity or running water. Grocery carts served as makeshift grills. Rats ran rampant and fleas gnawed on young and old alike.

But they were home, and that was better than the new reality for thousands of Gypsies forced into hiding after France began its latest campaign this month to drive them out of their camps.

In the last big sweep in 2010, France expelled Gypsies to Romania and Bulgaria. Then the European Commission imposed sanctions and thousands of French protested in sympathy for the Gypsies, also known as the Roma.

This time, the Gypsies left quietly, gathering their belongings and heading into the woods, planning to re-emerge when the coast is clear.

"Why did God even create us, if Gypsies are to live like this?" cried Babica, 35, as bulldozers tore down the camp in Gennevilliers, on the outskirts of Paris. Like other Roma quoted in this story, he did not give his last name out of fear of arrest or deportation.

Most of them have no plans to return to Romania, where their citizenship would at least allow them to educate their children and treat their illnesses. Amid a dismal European economic environment, they say, begging in France is still more lucrative than trying to find work where there is none.

France has cast the most recent demolitions as necessary for public health and safety. At least five camps around Paris were demolished and several hundred residents were ordered out; others came down in Lille and Lyon.

This time, the Interior Ministry says, the camps were demolished in accordance with legal guidelines agreed upon with the European Union.

"Respect for human dignity is a constant imperative of all public action, but the difficulties and local health risks posed by the unsanitary camps needed to be addressed," the ministry said. In no case, the government said, "did the removals take the form of collective expulsion, which is forbidden by law."

The Roma Forum, which has ties to the 47-member Council of Europe, condemned the evictions, saying they contradicted President François Hollande's campaign pledges.