French minister defends telling Roma to go home

French interior minister Manuel Valls insisted he stood by a controversial call for tens of thousands of ethnic Roma to be kicked out of the country.

Valls has triggered an outcry from human rights groups, the European Commission and some of his government colleagues by saying any Roma not working should be “delivered back to the borders”, describing their way of life as “extremely different from ours”, and claiming they will never integrate into French society.

The latter remark earned the minister a rebuke from his cabinet colleague, Arnaud Montebourg, who pointedly alluded to Valls’ own status as the Barcelona-born son of Spanish immigrants who left for France during Franco’s dictatorship.