Worries after France threatens to dismantle Roma camps

26/07/2012 – Rights groups raised concerns Thursday after France’s Interior Minister Manuel Valls threatened to dismantle illegal Roma encampments, raising the spectre of previous controversial expulsions.

“It’s not the Grenoble speech, but Manuel Valls’s statements are still worrying,” said Saimir Mile, the head of the Voice of the Roma group, referring to a 2010 speech by then-president Nicolas Sarkozy that was followed by a wave of Roma expulsions.

Speaking before the French Senate on Wednesday, Valls said the government was concerned about growing Roma encampments in several cities. “The situation today in Lyon, in Aix-en-Provence and in Seine-Saint-Denis (just northeast of Paris) requires us to take decisions to dismantle,” he said.

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