(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL (#252) n° spécial -
antiracism, trasbourg: A "model camp" for invisibiliser Roma (fr, it,
pt) [machine translation]
A former military camp, rusty barbed wire, caravans ... it is the "space Hoche", where the
eco-socialist municipality of Strasbourg focuses Roma two years previously inhabited a
little too close to the center of slums the European capital. It boasts social model. This
is a smokescreen. Report. ---- The December 19, 2013, the head of the "mission Roma" and
two executives of the municipal police are evacuating the Roma camp located behind the St.
Gallen cemetery, in the district of Koenigshoffen, Strasbourg, over a year after the first
court decision, October 9, 2012 had ordered the evacuation. ---- Unlike many evictions
throughout France, no impressive police deployment: 130 Roma, all Romanian, emptying
themselves up camp in two hours! Before the end of the day, the camp was razed by
municipal services. Roland Ries, Mayor of Strasbourg, applies in its own way Valls
circular in August 2012 and the need not to practice evacuation without rehousing.
Yet from this evacuation, Roma are under pressure: the relocation could be withdrawn if
they decided to contact the press and militant alternative present on site, that is to
say, first, bloggers The cabbage leaf. At that time, the famous alternative accommodation
has not been publicly disclosed.
Space becomes a camp
At the Hoche area where these families are rehoused, caravans made available by the City
expect in a vast hangar of the military. These are the Roma, it is "natural" that they
live in caravans. But beware! Their achievement is conditioned by the silence against the
militant blog and certain associations.
Roma have free food provided by the food bank. Three employees of the Red Cross managing
the camp. Height of luxury, washing machines are available to them, what the municipality
does not fail to report when associations are concerned about their fate.
In the hangar, the place of life of the Roma
But in this small rural paradise, Roma also benefit from the supervision of two security
guards of a private company paid by the City and another security guard of an army company.
If this strike force mission is not to prevent the Roma out, it is particularly effective
to prevent unauthorized entry: unaccompanied media or tolerated by the authorities. The
identity of those seeking entry is recorded, as the license plates of vehicles ... which
accentuates the isolation linked to the camp location and suggests that there is much that
the town wishes hide. Indeed, the Roma do not have permission to work in the camp, they
had to abandon their subsistence activities: metal recovery and resale, and begging.
Residents and residents tell us that food is regularly outdated. Others that aids which
they were entitled to them have been removed because they were fed and housed for free.
Police visits are regular and some women even had to undergo DNA samples, the
justification remains mysterious.
The thirty families present, all Romanian, have permission to leave the place one month a
year, or lose their caravan. These little annoyances should be transitory because the camp
was closed in June 2014. The council asserted in December 2013 that it was working to
create a sustainable land near the center, as if Roma could not live in an apartment. In
June 2015, the camp still exists.
Europtimist
It seems that the main objective of the camp remains away these unwanted people from
downtown and eliminate slums that were spoiling the landscape, without taking the trouble
to seriously help these citizens of Romania to live decently .
The lucky ones are found in transitional camps, the others become invisible and the City
nevertheless continues its propaganda on the "exemplary" policy of the European capital.
If every speech contains a high dose of "social integration" and "inclusion", one thing is
clear: in four years, only sixty Roma were relocated and fifty would be in single
integration contract in subsidized contract or training on an estimated population of
about 450 people in the metropolitan area. The means used are disproportionate to the loot
of the transformation of the city.
Behind the barbed wire Fort Hoche, a few caravans are waiting to welcome new families.
The urban community of Strasbourg started, for years, a metropolisation strategy, which
aims to strengthen its weight in focusing the activities of economic and political
leadership in network by themselves with other cities, and attracting people to the top
level of qualification and income.
Since January 2015, this urban community became Eurometropole Strasbourg. Metropolization
This results in particular in the construction of thousands of luxury homes ($ 1.2 billion
since 1997), the completion in 2016 of the railway line at high speed with Paris, creation
of a neighborhood Business between the European Parliament and the seat of the regional
council, the complete renovation of the Palace of Music and Congress, the merger of the
three universities to create one of the first autonomous universities of France and, last
but not least, a big marketing campaign based in particular on the city of his reputation
as a "green" ... the adoption of a new slogan, international scale: Strasbourg the
Europtimist.
Obviously slums in this beautiful city, it's messy.
The shed is too small, many caravans are crammed outside.
A strong team
Racism against Roma is probably the one that makes the most consensus, especially since
the campaign launched by Sarkozy during summer 2010 and the wave of expulsions that
followed, including five years as Holland.
The City of Strasbourg has chosen a so-called humanitarian and social policy, but above
all the advantage to evacuate the problem of the urban landscape. So she wants to
distinguish from Grenoble speech of Sarkozy, she interprets as a brutal but effective
approach to select the "pragmatism" political foundation of a municipal team that does not
hesitate to govern the metropolis within a right-left majority (UMP-PS-EELV).
In February 2013, the prefecture ten lived in illegal settlements, inhabited by about 290
people [1]. Yet in June 2013, Marie-Dominique Dreyssé, Assistant EELV "with solidarity",
said that there were between 350 and 450 in the conurbation of Strasbourg alone [2].
A first camp was installed in 2011 on the outskirts of the old fortifications near the
station and the city center, called "Area 16". From 2012, deportation procedures are
spreading against illegal settlements, thus filling the space 16 to enlarge in 2014, and
then create another camp called Sluys, and finally the Space Hoche.
Camp management, including social support, is delegated to associations: Friendship
Horizon at Espace 16, the Red Cross camp in Hoche. All must be temporary accommodation,
the "lock" as said Marie-Dominique Dreyssé in 2013. In June 2015, the Area 16 has been
expanded to accommodate the nine families evicted from the camp "Little Forest" on June
1st. There are particularly long sas ... Ultimately, this is more like a tactical wear:
those who refuse to spend their lives in a shed sheet and guardianship will not stay,
leaving room others deported. It may be that, the famous experimental model.
To implement this policy, a "mission Roma", under the authority of Marie-Dominique
Dreyssé, is particularly active. Besides the implementation of these legal camps, it is
distinguished by the harassment of Roma living in slums, with the help of the municipal
police: insults, police threats, confiscation or destruction of business people
(mattresses, tents , clothing, medicines up ...) [3]. Roma who have the chance to enjoy an
accommodation in a legal camp, a little less unhealthy, Please do not help others, or risk
losing their place. The aim is to force them to leave. The city can not seem to ever
expand its camps.
A model for all of Europe
In June 2015, Marie-Dominique Dreyssé defended the Strasbourg model in the program Romed 2
(Mediation for Roma, the Council of Europe and the European Union). There was an exchange
of experience with the administration of Darnitsa in Kiev. Always gondola head, social
support was related to autonomy, often hackneyed, people in search of their own "journey",
"life course". Would Roma therefore who should be assisted learning autonomy? Is this the
path of seriously ill people threatened by municipal employees? No, a more fundamental
motivation appears: "Local residents were often annoyed by this overcrowded slums," says
the environmentalist elected [4].
Ever in search of self-satisfaction, the municipality welcomed last May, to be "named one
of the best examples of cities in the 28 Member States of the Union" as to its positive
impact on the living conditions of Roma . She has even been adopted by the EU Agency for
Fundamental Rights to participate in the program Leri (Local Commitment for Roma
Inclusion). Unfortunately no trace of any approval of this type has been found, that the
local press, yet unwilling to embarrass those in power did not fail to note.
Each entering vehicle is controlled by security guards.
For cons, the example of Espace 16 is listed on the website of "good practices" for Roma
of the Council of Europe [5]. The concentration of Roma in legal camps seems to appeal far
beyond Ukraine.
While the administrative verbiage and false social nature of the authorities does not seem
to meet major challenge to the humanitarian side of anti-racist associations, it took
Viorel Costache, President of the Association prales ("brothers" gypsy language) comes
from Antibes May 14, 2015 to denounce this situation: "It is not the destiny of our
people, live hunched, head down and walk on his knees, locked in a camp enclosed by
fences, like in a zoo, or hunted like animals in the streets of the city. "
There 'no Roma problem [6]. However, there is an accumulation of social problems for Roma:
poor housing, state racism, policies of austerity and public service breaks, the saturated
job market. The main source is still the withdrawal of a capitalism in crisis and a state
that uses xenophobia to facilitate operation.
Renaud and Frederick (AL Alsace)
Photos: Cabbage Leaf, March 2014
Acknowledgement: This report could not have been achieved without the valuable assistance
of investigations Cabbage Leaf.
[1] Document "Evaluation of support systems for people in the camps", in May 2013, on
Gouvernement.fr.
[2] S. Mouillard and Mr. Thornton, "Roma: when councils are experimenting with concrete
solutions", Libération, 11 June 2013
[3] See the story of these behaviors: la-feuille-de-chou.fr/archives/80368.
[4] Interview at: romed.coe-romact.org.
[5] goodpracticeroma.ppa.coe.int.
[6] See "Roma: A European citizens? "In Alternative Libertaire in December 2014.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Roms-Le-camp-modele-de-Strasbourg
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