UN labels France Roma expulsions 'racist'

French police have dismantled over 50 Roma camps in the past two weeks and 700 of the people who used to live in them are expected to be returned to Bulgaria and Romania this month.

On Thursday 283 more Roma migrants were booted out, despite widening criticism of the French government's sinister policy.

The Sarkozy administration, which insists that the expulsions will serve to reduce crime, said that all those flown back to the Balkans were part of a voluntary repatriation scheme and had accepted payments equivalent to about $380 (£246) per adult and $120 (£77) per child.

However the UN report issued in Geneva on Friday cast doubt on that claim, saying that "not all individuals" had given "their free and full consent" or understood their rights.

The committee of experts which wrote the report is an independent group that monitors the implementation of a 1965 convention on the elimination of racial discrimination.

It urged France to "specifically avoid collective repatriation" and challenged President Nicolas Sarkozy to seek permanent solutions for the welfare of the Roma, ensuring that "they have access to education, health services, housing and other temporary infrastructure."

The 18 independent experts described the much-maligned community as a victim of "violence with a racist characteristic."

Pierre-Richard Prosper, a former United States ambassador for war crimes-related issues and the group's rapporteur, said: "Our concern is that a government should not lump an entire group together and deal with them collectively but act on the basis of individuals."

Mr Prosper condemned the "growing racist and xenophobic tone in political discourse and the fact that earlier immigrants do not feel fully accepted and do not get equal chances in French society."

The archbishop of Paris has described President Sarkozy's crackdown as a "circus," implying that it is designed to distract attention from his administration's regressive economic agenda.

And former PM Dominique de Villepin has said that the mass expulsions had spattered the national tricolour with a "stain of shame," adding that Mr Sarkozy was responsible for "a moral fault, a collective fault committed in all our names, against the republic and against France."