" I am not well. I don't sleep well. I am afraid for the future, for my grandchildren… ”Marie * 's voice trembles a little. The past few months have been difficult. With her caravan, she usually moves from market to market, to sell her lots. Sometimes jewelry, sometimes belts ... But this year, the goods she bought this winter are still sleeping in her reserve. “People come to the market to get out of their homes a bit. And they don't buy non-food, sighs Marie. My lots, clothes ... All this is very complicated. The traveler, who has grown accustomed to traveling throughout Île-de-France, from one family site to another, saw her savings melt away during confinement. Like many Travelers, she is reduced to waiting for the reopening of all markets. "We are practically all in depression, at home ...", she slips.
The spring was harsh for the 300,000 travelers, itinerant, semi-sedentary - like Marie - or sedentary who live in France. "We very badly experienced the arrival of the virus," confirms Emile Scheitz, president of the family association of Travelers from Île-de-France, who already told us of his dismay last April. "Baba", as it is nicknamed on the Tremblay area (Seine-Saint-Denis) which it has occupied with around fifty other caravans since 2004, lists the victims of the epidemic. “We had seven people with the virus, two hospitalized, one death. The survivor was intubated for eight days. "
"A huge fear of the virus"
In the Tremblay area, the sixty travelers share four toilets and a tap. Promiscuity could only favor the transmission of the virus, and this, despite very good anticipation, underlines Sophie d'Haese, director of the departmental association of travelers from Essonne. In correspondence with many travelers when the epidemic was raging, Sophie d'Haese was able to observe "extreme respect for the instructions" on the part of the Travelers. “Many have left to join family land in the South, less affected by the virus. As of the February holidays, some children were removed from schools. A "huge fear of the virus" that his association sometimes even had to calm, reassuring families. Because Sophie d'Haese was one of the only "official" contacts for many travelers during this difficult period.
"We had no advice, no one from the town hall, from the prefecture, to ask us how it was going," indignant Emile Scheitz. Even the confined reception area managers could no longer answer travelers' questions. Emile Scheitz knows that Tremblay was not an isolated case: “The other terrains were the same. A striking case: in Vienne, at Pressac, thirty-five cases of coronavirus were detected within the same community of travelers - forced to remain confined in their respective caravans. “Here in Tremblay, there is a big health concern. We really paid attention, we adapted to the old… But we received nothing to disinfect, or to allow us to improve our condition. And leaving the reception areas is out of the question, under penalty of receiving a fine. Emile Scheitz concludes: “We have been abandoned. "
Paying for basic food is a challenge
A feeling reinforced by the financial slump in which many members of the community found themselves. “It is very expensive, a reception area! exclaims Ferdinand Helfritt. Five euros a day for parking, plus water and electricity… it's like paying for a hotel room! The 73-year-old patriarch, fortunately for him, spent his confinement on a family plot in Le Mans (Sarthe). He is now worried about the many self-employed travelers, who cannot find seasonal work. "There is practically no more harvest, many markets are closed, we can no longer go door to door ... We are in uncertainty. We don't know what can happen tomorrow. "
Other sectors that usually employ travelers have found themselves in total or partial stop overnight: the building, green spaces ... "It's a disaster, says Sophie d'Haese. Many travelers are afraid of tomorrow, wondering how they are going to leave… ”
Income stalled, and bank accounts weighed down by the piling up debts. With, however, a positive point: following a recommendation from the Dihal (interministerial direction for accommodation and access to housing) from March 27, many municipalities have chosen to "facilitate the staggering or the postponement of the recovery of user charges ”and“ to suspend evictions linked to non-payments ”. But… even without having to pay for a parking space, many travelers have taken out a loan to reimburse their caravan - around 12,000 of them, with average monthly payments of € 250 per month, according to Stéphane Lévêque, director of the Federation National Association of Action Solidarity with Gypsies and Travelers. Result: "Some families no longer have enough money to pay for their basic food," says Sophie d'Haese. They are in crisis. "
"We spent two months in hell"
How, therefore, can we envisage the future? Large summer gatherings of Travelers, like the pilgrimage to Lourdes, the pilgrimage of gypsies to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer or the Gypsy convention "Life and Light", were banned, consequence of the measures of social distancing. But it is especially the start of the school year that worries travelers. “For the moment, at home, nobody has put their children back in school, attests Emile Scheitz, from his reception area in Tremblay. In the news, they say that the children will be checked, screened ... But we don't know more. Nobody explained anything to us… We know that children have to go back to school… ”
Sophie d'Haese even reports that within the communities, it is rumored that sending the children to school would expose them to certain contamination. "This is one of the big fears of families," agrees Emile Scheitz. Who concludes: "We spent two months in hell. But we Travelers are used to no one paying attention to us. Fortunately there is the family… ”