French police move in to clear largest Roma gypsy camp in Marseille to find ghost town of rubbish and ramshackle huts after site's NINETY families slipped away in the night



The site, in the heart of Marseille, was the largest Roma camp in the southern French city

It is unknown where the ninety families have gone but they left behind mounds of rubbish and makeshift huts

It comes days after an abducted four-year-old girl was rescued after a similar camp was cleared in Greece


It looks more like a post-apocalyptic wasteland than an inner-city campsite for families and friends.

But today police moved in on the largest Roma gypsy camp in the heart of Marseille days after the order was issued to dismantle the site.

But by the time they arrived they found the ninety families who lived there gone, having slipped away into the night.

All that was left was a forgotten ghost town of ramshackle huts, mounds of rubbish, wood, tyres and corrugated iron.



Ghost town: Officers survey the site after the order was issued to dismantle the largest Roma gypsy camp in the heart of Marseille

Deserted: By the time they arrived they found the ninety families who lived there gone, having slipped away into the night

Rubbish mounds: All that was left was a forgotten ghost town of ramshackle huts, all cobbled together with off-cuts of wood, corrugated iron and rubber tyres

Wasteland: It looks more like a post-apocalyptic wasteland than an inner-city campsite for families and friends

It is not known where the itinerants went as the long task of clearing up their village began.

It comes a week after police sparked riots in France after officers dragged a 15-year-old Roma schoolgirl off a bus in front of classmates so she could be expelled to Kosovo with her family.

Leonarda Dibrani was on a school trip when immigration officials boarded the school bus and arrested her.



She later described being escorted from the bus. A teacher 'told me to say goodbye to my classmates. I told her it wasn't fair,' she said.



Leonarda, who was deported to Kosovo with her family on October 9, said her life was now 'a nightmare' and that all she wants is 'to come back to France with my family'.



The government says her family, who had been living in Levier in the Doubs region of eastern France, had been denied asylum.



Mystery: It is not known where the itinerants went as the long task of clearing up their village began

Itinerant: Ninety families have left this camp into the night to an unknown destination

Such expulsions occur regularly as the French government tries to limit illegal immigration. But the treatment of the girl touched a nerve.



Critics said police went too far and betrayed France’s image as a champion of human rights.



The protesters hope to pressurise the government into allowing Leonarda and a recently expelled Armenian boy to return to France.



The case has caused outrage across France and the government, trying to save face, is now investigating the case of Leonarda who wants to return to the country. She has described her shame when she was escorted by police from a school bus after a field trip.



Deported: Leonarda Dibrani, 15, sits at her home with her family members in the town of Mitrovica in Kosovo. She was deported after French police hauled her off a bus during a school trip

Immigrants' rights groups and even members of the governing Socialist Party are calling the conditions of the expulsion shocking.

The Dibrani family fled Kosovo about five years ago because they are Roma, or Gypsies, and face discrimination and few opportunities, according to activist Jean-Jacques Boy who works with immigrant families in the Doubs region in eastern France, where the family lived.



The Interior Ministry said the family's application for asylum had been rejected and it no longer had the right to stay in France. It said they repeatedly refused to leave, so police detained the father and deported him to Kosovo on October 8.



They also detained the mother and five of their children, but Leonarda was away on a school field trip. Police met her bus when it returned.

This week an abducted four-year-old girl was rescued after a similar camp was cleared in Greece.