Nobel Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said that the expulsion of Roms from France cannot be compared to the transportation of Jews to Nazi death camps during WWII.
"This is unacceptable," he said, while expressing his "solidarity" with the Roma community.
"It is necessary to be careful with the language. These Roma are sent to Romania, to Hungary, not to Auschwitz," Wiesel told France 3 television.
"One doesn’t have the right to trivialize events, memories and souvenirs," he added.
He however expressed his support for the Roms “as a former refugee.”
Wiesel called on French President Nicolas Sarkozy to reverse his decision to send thousands of Roma back to Romania and Bulgaria.
France said Monday it will step up deportations of foreigners caught stealing or begging aggressively as part of a high-profile crackdown on the Roma minority that has sparked condemnation around the world.
Outlining measures to fight illegal immigration and people trafficking originating in Romania and Bulgaria, French Immigration Minister Eric Besson announced plans to change the law to allow easier deportation of offenders.
"We must broaden the possibilities for issuing deportation orders (for people who pose) a threat to public order by repeated acts of theft or aggressive begging," he told reporters.
Speaking at the same press conference, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux noted that one in five thefts in the Paris area was carried out by Romanian citizens.
Crime by Romanians in the French capital rose by 259 percent over the past 18 months, he said. Many Romanians in Paris are from the Roma minority.
"Today in Paris the reality is that the perpetrator of one theft in five is a Romanian," he said, adding: "One theft in four committed by a minor is committed by a Romanian minor."
Romania's Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi warned the deportations would not solve the problems facing the minority, and called for dialogue between the two countries and at EU level.
"These voluntary repatriations in exchange for money that our fellow Roma citizens receive for coming back to Romania are not a solution," he told Romanian national television TVR.
He insisted on the need for "funds, political will, bilateral and European dialogue and concrete programmes" to improve the Roma's lot.