The much expected immigration summit of several EU countries and Canada in Paris has made no mention of the recent campaign of the French government to crack down on Roma immigrants from Bulgaria and Romania.
The Roma issue, including the deportation of Roma squatters to their home countries, which caused much uproar around Europe and brought much international criticism for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, was not mentioned once during the discussions of Monday's immigration summit in Paris, and was not included in the concluding document of the meeting, reported the correspondent of the Bulgarian channel bTV.
At a news conference after the summit, however, French Immigration Minister Eric Besson practically denied the existence of a "Roma deportation".
"France remains faithful to the principles of humanity," Besson is quoted as saying while also pointing out that France approached with much caution every single case of Roma migrants making sure that its authorities abide by EU law and local law.
Besson will be making a visit to the Romanian capital Bucharest on September 9 and 10, 2010, where the Roma issue will be discussed.
When asked about Bulgaria's position with respect to the expulsion of the Romapeople, the French immigration minister declared that France had no issues with the Bulgarian state, and that the Bulgarian authorities had made it clear they did not have problems with the actions of the French government.
While denying the claims that the French state has initiated a mass deportation ofRoma, Besson did say that there is an acceleration of the rate at which Romamigrants leave France. However, he emphasized the fact that they depart voluntarily, in exchange for allowances.
The immigration summit in Paris included participants of 6 EU nations (France,Germany, Italy, UK, Greece, Belgium) and Canada. The fact that the European Commission was not invited to it generated much criticism. As it was originally expected to discuss in detail the Roma expulsion, critics had stated Bulgaria andRomania had to be present as well.
During Monday's summit, the governments of the seven nations agreed to adopt faster procedures for dealing with illegal immigrants whose immigration or refugee status requests have been turned down.
The press conference was attended by Besson, as well as by Italian Interior MinisterRoberto Maroni, Canada's Interior Minister Jason Kennedy, and senior government officials from Greece, the UK, Germany and Belgium.
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