Gypsy camps destroyed as Italian intolerance flares

Richard Owen, Naples May 17, 2008

SMOKE rose yesterday from the smouldering ruins of a Gypsy camp attacked by vigilantes in a run-down industrial suburb of Naples in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

The charred remains of the makeshift wooden shacks, mattresses and belongings at the site in Ponticelli crunched underfoot. Dogs scavenged through a pile of uncollected rubbish nearby.

Police guarded another squalid "nomad camp" beneath an overpass after the inhabitants fled during the night to avoid meeting a similar fate. Signs of their flight were everywhere, with doors to shacks left open and the ground strewn with clothing, shoes, bicycles, plastic bottles, pots and pans and children's toys.

Police launched a nationwide round-up of nearly 400 illegal immigrants this week from the Balkans and North Africa - the first step in a crackdown on crime promised by the new centre-right Government of Silvio Berlusconi. Almost 120 of those held in the operation, which stretched from Naples to northern Italy, were ordered to be deported immediately for offences ranging from drug-dealing and robbery to prostitution.

In Rome, where Gianni Alemanno, the new right-wing Mayor, has vowed to dismantle "nomad camps" to reduce street crime, police raided a Roma camp, taking the inhabitants by bus to detention centres. Mr Alemanno has promised to deport 20,000 illegal immigrants.

But in Naples local people pre-empted the crackdown and took the law into their own hands. Scores of youths on scooters and motorbikes wielded iron bars and threw Molotov cocktails at the Roma shanty towns. Their anger came to a head after a 17-year-old Roma girl entered a flat in Ponticelli and apparently tried to steal a six-month-old girl. The child's mother and neighbours gave chase and the teenager escaped being lynched only after police moved in.

Naples erupted in fury, with women leading the marches on the Roma camps to the chant of "Fuori, fuori" ("Out, out") and "Go home, dirty child stealers". Young men, allegedly on the orders of the Camorra, the Naples Mafia, set the sites ablaze, blocking attempts by the fire brigade to put out the fires. Exploding gas canisters completed the destruction. The women jeered at the firemen, shouting: "You put the fires out, we start them again."

Hundreds of Roma families fled for their lives, their belongings piled on to small pick-up trucks or handcarts. Some have been taken under police protection. Others have found refuge at Roma camps elsewhere in the Campania region, while a few have been taken in by Naples residents shocked at the outbreak of xenophobia.

The arson attacks come from festering anger over rising crime and urban degradation, much of it blamed on Roma gypsies and the estimated half a million Romanians who have emigrated to Italy since Romania joined the European Union. The Roma rights group Opera Nomadi says there are 2500 Roma in Naples, 1000 from Romania and 1500 from Balkan areas.

Late yesterday, the Berlusconi cabinet was to approve an emergency "security package" drawn up by new Interior Minister and deputy leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League Robert Maroni. It includes the dismantling of Roma camps, the appointment of "special commissioners" to deal with "the Roma problem", tighter border controls and speedier deportation of immigrants who cannot show they have a job or adequate income. Mr Maroni wants to make illegal immigration a criminal offence.

Romanian Interior Minister Cristian David arrived in Rome yesterday for talks on the crisis.

The Times

Still time to comment on plans for Gypsy and Traveller ...

Members of the public from across the region, including Gypsies and Travellers, still have time to respond to the consultation on proposals to tackle the shortage of caravan pitches for the Gypsy and Traveller community in the region. This is part of the Government's commitment to ensuring an affordable place to live for all. It is being co-ordinated by the Government Office for the East of England (GO-East) on behalf of the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

An event on Wednesday March 13 targeted local authorities that are responsible for planning authorised pitches for the 4,229 Gypsy and Traveller caravans in the region. Of these 1,140 are currently on unauthorised pitches. The event, held in Ely, provided an opportunity for local authorities to hear directly from the East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) about their recommendation that each of the region's 48 local authorities should provide at least 15 additional pitches.

Members of the Gypsy and Traveller community were invited to an event at the Government Offices in Cambridge on Wednesday 19 March, to hear more about the proposals and how they can make their views known. They were updated on progress to date, and the process that GO-East are currently engaged in prior to finalising the proposals in 2009.

Tim Freathy, Acting Deputy Regional Director of GO-East said:

"It is important to engage with the Gypsy and Traveller community on this issue which directly affects their future in the region. We need to ensure that their views are heard and the event today gave the community an opportunity to hear about the consultation and how they can contribute. By providing enough authorised sites to meet people's needs we can reduce unauthorised encampments and help to end friction with settled communities."

Gloria Buckley, a member of the Gypsy and Traveller community in the East of England, took part in the event. She said:

"Today's meeting is a milestone for the Gypsy and Traveller community. It has been a difficult process to get this far, to get the proposals on paper, and now we need to take the next steps. I would like to encourage the community to stand up and have their views counted.

"Gypsies and Travellers, like every other community, need somewhere to live. The East of England is a large region - over 7,300 square miles. Shortage of space is not an issue; what we have had is a shortage of understanding. I hope that today's event and this consultation process will begin to break down the barriers that have existed for too long."

The plans for additional Gypsy and Traveller caravan pitches are part of a single issue review of the East of England Plan (Regional Spatial Strategy) and follow two years of research and consultation with local authorities, businesses, voluntary organisations, the public and Gypsies and Travellers.

The East of England Plan provides a clear, agreed, long-term vision for how the region will provide jobs and homes for its residents until 2021 and beyond. It is the framework for putting into place the Government's growth agenda within the region and ensuring that growth is sustainable. The adequate provision of homes and affordable housing to accommodate the needs of different communities, is a vital element of the Plan.

(MORE)