The Guardian UK reports, “France’s new Socialist government is to hold emergency talks on the plight of the country’s Roma after a wave of evictions of makeshift camps prompted accusations that François Hollande was following Nicolas Sarkozy’s lead in persecuting the ethnic minority. Human rights groups expressed outrage at a recent dawn raids and forced evacuations of caravan sites and squats across France. The police raids left hundreds of Roma, including many children, homeless after caravans were impounded and no arrangements for temporary housing were made.” This article can be read in full at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/21/roma-raids-france-francois-hollande?newsfeed=true.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Press has reported that the Harper government is considering detaining Roma refugee claimants from Europe, http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/federal-government-could-detain-roma-refugee-claimants-report-suggests-166631276.html. In September 2010, Postmedia News reported, “Canada is being drawn into the controversy over President Nicholas Sarkozy’s controversial initiative to expel (almost 1,000) Roma migrants, with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney coming under criticism for agreeing to attend a France-hosted meeting… that has been described by some as an ‘anti-Roma’ gathering.”
