Global General

Bulgarian Roma protest against 'ethnic expulsion'

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-19 10:29

Supporters and members of Bulgaria's Roma community are seen through a European Union flag during a protest in front of the French embassy in Sofia September 18, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

"If we have a good behavior when we go abroad, and if there we work, study and comply with all laws and mores, nobody will expel us from these countries," said Anita Kristi, a singer and dancer, one of the most popular representatives of the Roma culture.

She said that the "endless transition" between communism and democracy in Bulgaria during the last 21 years and the poverty were the main reason for the Bulgarian migration to the Western Europe.

"Let them be ashamed -- the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria, statesmen, rulers, which think only for their own pockets, not for the Bulgarian people, for the ordinary workers or the Gypsy-Roma," Kristi said.

Speaking about the French policy of expelling Roma migrants, she called it "the first sign of the collapse of the European Union."