Official notices that appeared on French state railway trains serving the southwest area of France, singled out Romanians for negative attention.
A translation of the notice reads:
Over the past few weeks there have been worries with Romanians. Indeed, a number of bag thefts have been noted. We ask you to redouble your vigilance. Besides, all sightings of Romanians must be reported.
Talk about damning an entire people. It's almost like a flashback to an earlier century when racist establishments thought nothing of posting 'no blacks' and 'no Irish' signs. The SNCF message seems to be that on French rail evidence-of-nationality has now become synonymous with criminal activity!
A local writer, Maloud Akkouche, spotted the notice when he was en-route from Fois to Toulouse. Initially he thought it was a joke of some sort. On realizing that this wasn't in fact the case, he lodged a complaint.
The incident has ignited a bit of a firestorm. Roumanophilie, a website that caters to Romanians living in France characterized the signs as "anti-Romanian racism". The French trade union, Sud-Rail, has also come out and condemned the signs as racist.
There have been sporadic reports of Roma (sometimes referred to as 'gypsies') being arrested for petty theft in France. But the Roma, despite the name, are not exclusively Romanian. They are a people with a distinct lifestyle and character irrespective of country-of-origin. While it is true that a percentage of Roma engage in petty crime, they are frequently unfairly profiled in a generalized manner as thieves and con artists.
French railway - SNCF - has issued an apology for the signs. They claim, rather conveniently, that an individual guard was responsible for the notices. A spokesperson said: “This should not have happened. An internal inquiry is under way to determine how it occurred.”
If as alleged, the concerns outlined in the notice are a pressing problem for SNCF, it's interesting to note that not a single person contacted railway security to warn of "Romanians" after reading the sign.
Reports on the story include - BBC - Timesonline - Huffington Post.
