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on its territory (in the instant case for longer than three months), and not up to the
person in question. The Government states, having submitted no evidence thereof, that
each expulsion measure is adopted following an examination assessing the personal
circumstances of the applicant. It appears, on the contrary, that expulsion procedures
have been launched without any evidence of the person having entered the French
territory for longer than for a period of three months (see Human Rights Watch, France’s
Compliance with the European Free Movement Directive and the Removal of Ethnic
Roma EU Citizens. A Briefing Paper Submitted to the European Commission in July
2011, which shows that, out of 198 orders to leave the country served on Romanian
Roma and examined between August 2010 and May 2011, 71 (i.e. 35.85%) contained
no evidence of the individual having entered France over three months prior to the
adoption of the order). The Committee notes that, as a consequence, there had been no
real individual examination of the situations but, in fact, collective expulsions.
115. Since the authorities do not themselves examine the legal situation of the
migrant Roma at the end of their residence in France, the Committee considers that the
present complaint offers the possibility of applying the rule mentioned in §112 above to
cover all migrant Roma of Romanian and Bulgarian origin, affected by an expulsion
procedure from the French territory.
116. In this context, the Committee recalls its previous decision on the merits in
complaint No. 64/2011 (European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF) v. France)
adopted on 24 January 2012 where it held that there were a violation of Article E taken
in conjunction with Article 19§8 (see §§51-67).
117. The Committee considers, basing its consideration on the case file, that there has
been no change in the situation since that decision. Consequently, it holds that there is a
violation of Article E taken in conjunction with Article 19§8.
ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE E TAKEN IN CONJUNCTION WITH ARTICLE 17
OF THE CHARTER
Article E – Non-discrimination
“The enjoyment of the rights set forth in this Charter shall be secured without discrimination on any ground
such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national extraction or social origin,
health, association with a national minority, birth or other status.”
Article 17 – The right of children and young persons to social, legal and economic protection
Part I: “Children and young persons have the right to appropriate social, legal and economic protection.”
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