Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Germans boot out Gypsies Date: Sun, 1 Nov 92 20:06:09 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Germans boot out Gypsies \SH Critics see cave-in to right extremists \BY Robin Gedye \CR LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH \DT BONN BONN - In an operation with echoes of the past, Germany begins forcibly repatriating thousands of Romanian Gypsies today as a first step in its attempt to rid itself of unwanted immigrants. British and American human rights groups have described the deportations as intolerable acts against people who suffer persecution wherever they go. Bucharest will receive about $20 million in "reinsertion money" as compensation for the return of between 50,000 and 136,000 Romanians, mostly Gypsies. Germany says those being repatriated have either entered the country illegally or do not qualify for political asylum. In a reference to the 500,000 Gypsies exterminated by the Nazis during World War II, Annelore Hermes, spokeswoman for the German Association for the Protection of Threatened Peoples, said: "We have a historical debt to the Gypsies. This agreement is utterly wrong." The association said the deportation of illegal Romanians already had begun. But starting today, anyone suspected of being a Gypsy and not having a passport can be rounded up and deported without right of appeal. "The early-morning knock on the door is likely to be followed by a few hours in a refugee center. They will then be placed on the first available plane back," Miss Hermes said. "Once they are off German soil we do not know what will happen to them, but they are hardly likely to be well treated." A report by the Helsinki Watch human rights group described the forced repatriation of Gypsies as "achieving exactly what the right-wing extremists in Germany were fighting for." "It gives the impression that the government is caving in to right-wing demands for a foreigner-free Germany," the report said. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM