French Human Rights Group Blasts Police Collection of Roma DNA

     The French League of Human Rights charged last week that DNA samples  have been illegally collected from Roma (Gypsy) communities in France. The Gendarmerie, a national police agency, is being accused of taking samples from Roma who have been neither arrested nor charged with a crime, a violation of French law. While the individuals whose DNA was taken were trespassing illegally, no arrests were made.  

     According to another recent report, France’s Central Office for the Fight Against Delinquency (OCLDI) is gathering information and creating covert lists of “ethnic minorities” from traveler communities, mostly Roma. This practice would violate a French law against gathering official data along racial or ethnic lines, which carries a punishment of up to five years imprisonment and fines. French officials deny that such a list currently exists, but acknowledge that a “genealogical file” was deleted in 2007.

     France also offers a grant of 300 Euro – “humanitarian repatriation help” -- for those who voluntarily choose to leave France. Those who accept the grant have their photograph and fingerprints documented and entered into a database, along with the information of individuals expelled from the country. This database, OSCAR (Outil de Statistique et de Contrôle de l’Aide a Retour or The Tool for Repatriation Aid Statistics and Control) is currently legal but highly suspect. Several non governmental organizations claim that Roma are being coerced to accept these grants, as it is the only “legal” means to expel them. 

      While there are conflicting reports on the existence of an illegal police file on the Roma, French authorities have not yet publicly commented on the allegation of illegal DNA sampling. If that claim is true, it would add to the long history of discrimination against the Roma in Europe, including outright violence. Just this past summer, French authorities intensified deportations of Roma. President Sarkozy was heavily criticized for this policy, especially for the deportations similarities to the Jewish deportations in Vichy France. Sarkozy angrily refuted any such comparison, arguing that it was a part of a broader effort to crackdown on illegal immigration. 

       The report of illegal DNA collection has drawn the attention of at least one politician. Baroness Sarah Ludford, a member of the European Parliament, has condemned France’s actions as “anti-Roma” and “discriminatory,” and is urging the European Commission to investigate whether it violates EU rules against racial discrimination. The European Commission has already taken note of France’s summer deportations, and has announced that it will explore whether they were aimed at the Roma minority, and thus discriminatory by nature.

Previously on Biopolitical Times:

• Patricia Williams on DNA Databases
• Are UK Cops Pushing People into the Pool?
• Pretending to Be Tough