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Travellers say reference to them as 'blight' on society is offensive and politicians are using ethnic minorities to court rightwingers
A Conservative cabinet minister has been accused of sparking "open season on ethnic minorities" after his department referred to some Travellers as a blight on the community.
Eric Pickles, the communities and local government secretary, was criticised for stirring up tensions as he announced a crackdown on "unauthorised" camps, in new guidance for local councils.
A press release from his department initially described the camps as a blight that would not be tolerated. The government later reissued the announcement substituting the word "problem", but it insisted the change was due to a different "style" on the government website and did not mean its message had been watered down.
Speaking on ITV's Daybreak, Pickles said Travellers could not be allowed to trash the green belt and denied claims he was targeting them unfairly.
"We inherited a situation where the number of illegal sites had gone up four-fold and what we expect them to do is obey the law like you and I do," he said. "It does not give people the right to come on to a green belt … and to trash it.
"We're treating Travellers' families exactly the same way as we're treating the rest of population. The idea that is somehow an attack on the Traveller community is not true. This is a very good deal for Travellers."
Traveller groups said the guidance for councils was nothing new and Pickles was simply grandstanding to win support from the right.
Yvonne MacNamara, the director of the Irish Travellers' Movement, said the language used by Pickles was "offensive and counter-productive".
"It shows the level of hostility there is towards Travellers," she told the Guardian. "Would you call homeless people a blight? It's very, very offensive. We're talking about homeless Travellers here being used as a political football."
She said the only way forward was to provide more legal places for Traveller camps.
Joseph Jones, chairman of the Gypsy Council, said Pickles' actions appeared to be part of a similar campaign to the Home Office's controversial clampdown on illegal immigrants in London using van advertisements to tell them to go home.
"It's creating tension, it's a negative thing to do," he told Sky News. "At the moment it seems like a theme. Recently we have had the 'Go home' campaign … It seems like open season on ethnic minorities."
The new guidance highlights council powers to place temporary stop notices on illegal sites and remove unauthorised caravans.
Candy Sheridan, a campaigner for Gypsy and Traveller rights, said Travellers were constantly frustrated when they applied to set up legal sites, with councils reluctant to give permission for sites that could prove unpopular with voters.
"If the government continues to fail the community, the community ends up buying cheap but inappropriate land, community tensions are ignited and costs of evictions and moving on soar … with families back on to the roadside," she said. "This is the reality now and focusing simply on the settled communities' desires not to have a Gypsy site near them fuels their racism and achieves nothing for the majority of law-abiding Travellers out there waiting for sites or land identification."
The Department of Communities and Local Government is keen to avoid another incident like Dale Farm, in Essex, where travellers fought a decade-long battle to resist bailiffs. The eviction ended up costing £7m and involved violent clashes with the police.
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