Bulgarian and Romanian Roma have blocked a major road bridge near Bordeaux after hundreds of them were evicted from an illegal campsite, the BBC reported on August 15 2010.

Around 250 vehicles blocked the bridge for five hours, causing queues of up to five km on a public holiday weekend. French authorities said that more than 40 illegal camps have been closed in the past week.

Ten days ago, on August 6, France started dismantling illegal Roma camps following a presidential order for hundreds of such camps to be removed, and on August 14, about 100 people were moved on after police emptied a camp in the central city of Saint-Etienne.

Reportedly, the Roma had been living there in makeshift shelters and tents since May 2010.

But as the dismantling of the camps began, and French authorities announced that the Bulgarian and Romanian Roma would be deported on "specially chartered flights", the protests began.

The blockade on the Aquitaine Bridge caused tailbacks on the Paris-bound carriageway of the A630, as the Roma were being expelled from a camp in the town of Anglet, to the south, and were subsequently prevented from setting up a new camp on an exhibition ground nearer Bordeaux.

According to media reports, apart from "local Roma", a large chunk of the population is composed of recent immigrants, mainly from Romania and Bulgaria. They have the right to enter France without visas, but must have work or residency permits to settle in the long- term.

The interior minister has announced that he will meet the Romanian junior minister next week to call on Romanian police to assist in the crackdown in France, the BBC said.