SOCIAL AFFAIRS: NEW REPORT CALLS FOR OVERHAUL OF FRENCH POLICY ON GYPSIES.

• Position: Brief article

"Many gypsies and travellers are driven from municipality to municipality, unable to halt for more than very short periods at a time, before being subjected to the next forced eviction", the ERRF says in a statement. "Most of French territory, in fact, seems to be off limits for gypsies and travellers. Those areas available for settlement are often unhealthy, polluted and segregated areas well-hidden from the view of other residents", it adds.

According to Lanna Hollo, ERRC France Research Team Leader and key author of the extensive 344-page report, the situation of gypsies and travellers is "just as bad" in France as in Romania and other eastern European nations that have been roundly criticised for their unjust treatment of the same minority groups. The French government, for instance, passed a law late on November 29...