Indicator history

There is a significant level of segregation between French Travelers' minority group and the majority population.

Two legislative texts from 31 May 1990 for the implementation of the right to housing and from 5 July 2000 on the reception and housing of Travellers, known as ‘Besson Laws 1 and 2’ create an obligation for towns and cities with more than 5,000 inhabitants (following an evaluation of the needs) to make halting sites available. In return, such towns and cities may forbid Travellers to park on the rest of the council territory. It appears that, almost 20 years after their coming into force, the effectiveness of these laws remains in fact very relative: Travellers are faced with a great lack of spaces on halting sites and evictions have been made easier since the home security law of 13 March 2003. As a result, a high proportion of Travellers are forced to travel and settle on unregulated encampments. Spaces to park in halting sites which have been found for Travellers are most often located in segregated areas, meeting only very partially the minimum living standards (e.g. access to water, electricity, sanitation). These are sometimes built like enclosures with high walls and managed very differently depending on location, which implies differences in daily costs, leading to a discriminatory situation particularly detrimental for such poor populations. Due to difficulties in parking on regulated halting sites, a high number of Travellers live in unregulated encampments with no access to the minimum basic services for leading a decent life. For Travellers who settle permanently on their own sites, access to water and electricity is only ever granted temporarily, and there is a constant risk of having this access suspended. Travellers live in a permanently insecure environment due to the threat of eviction. Travellers are excluded from social inclusion processes, and are marginalised in society with an increasingly high number of other social outcasts.