Roma face mass exile in crackdown

At a special ministerial meeting on the Roma "problem," Mr Sarkozy ordered the government to expel all "illegal" Roma, or Gypsy immigrants, shut down around 300 illegal camps and expel all Roma from Romania and Bulgaria who have committed public offences.

In language that has chilling undertones in a country where authorities rounded up 30,000 Roma people and sent them to concentration camps during the nazi occupation in World War II, Mr Sarkozy pushed for a change in France's immigration law to make such mass expulsions easier "for reasons of public order."

He said that illegal Roma camps "will be systematically evacuated," branding them sources of trafficking, exploitation of children and prostitution.

Mr Sarkozy, who also called on police to target Roma people with expensive cars, unveiled his initiative after around 50 traveller youths ransacked a police station and other property in Saint Aignan last week in protest at the death of a 22-year-old who was shot by police.

The opposition Socialists observed that such outbreaks of urban violence are connected to severe social and housing problems in poor neighbourhoods and are calling on the government to address these problems.

Some commentators charge that Mr Sarkozy's populist attack on the Roma population is a desperate ploy to prop up his popularity ratings, which have plummeted as his administration introduces deeply unpopular welfare cuts and grapples with a damaging party funding scandal.

Around Europe, fascist authorities killed up to 1.5 million Roma people during World War II.