Note

In 2010, after French President Sarkozy fixed the objective of evacuating “300 camps or illegal settlements, (…) with priority given to Roma settlements”, more than 100 settlements were destroyed by police forces in 2010 and 2011, the majority of which were located at the periphery of France’s major cities. Over the same period, more than 11,000 people of Roma origin or perceived as such, were deported, victims of the French Government’s security-oriented policies. The socialist Government which came to power in 2012 has pursued the policy of the previous administration, continuing to evacuate squats and slums, deportations and making discriminatory public declarations against these populations.