Gypsy vaccination scheme starts

By Guy Dinmore in Rome

Published: March 2 2009 01:32 Last updated: March 2 2009 01:32

Italy’s Red Cross has launched its biggest vaccination programme since the second world war, with the goal of immunising several thousand gypsy children living in camps around Rome.

The operation began at Casilino 900, a camp on the eastern outskirts of the capital that is believed to be one of the largest gypsy settlements in Europe. Some two dozen doctors were among 200 Red Cross volunteers that included clowns to provide entertainment in one of the big tents erected for the exercise.

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Rome to dismantle illegal camps

BBC News

The authorities in Rome have begun dismantling illegal camps amid an outcry over three rapes last weekend that have been blamed on immigrants.

Mayor Gianni Alemanno supervised the demolition of about 30 camps, home to many Roma, or Gypsies, from Romania.

A 14-year-old girl was raped in a park in the capital on Saturday, allegedly by two men from Eastern Europe.

Meanwhile, a government minister has said surgical castration might be the best option for those who raped minors.

"In some cases, I don't believe that rehabilitation is possible," Roberto Calderoli, the minister without portfolio for legislative simplification, told the newspaper La Stampa.

"I think that chemical castration may be insufficient and that surgical castration is the only option left," he added. "Society has to protect itself."

Vigilantes

The call by Mr Calderoli, a leading member of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, comes as the government prepares new measures aimed at dealing with both crime and illegal immigrants.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, his party colleague, said it would push through an emergency decree this week speeding up legislation aimed at creating "groups of unnamed citizens" in high-risk areas, who would "assist the police by bringing to their attention events which might be damaging to urban security".


The decree would also ban magistrates from releasing into house arrest those accused of crimes involving sexual violence, he said.

Critics say the measures could effectively legitimise vigilantism and xenophobia.

The Vatican has warned against anything that turns innocent foreigners into convenient scapegoats.

Police say a mob of around 20 masked men beat up four Romanians outside a kebab restaurant in Rome on Sunday in an apparent vigilante attack.

Crackdown

Investigators believe the violence is a response to a series of sex attacks in recent weeks, including the rape of the girl in Rome's Caffarella Park on Saturday.

Also at the weekend, a 21-year-old Bolivian woman was raped in Milan by a man described as North African, while in Bologna, a Tunisian who had just been released from prison was re-arrested for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl.

While visiting Caffarella Park on Sunday, Rome's mayor said rapists had to know they would face "a definitive sentence" and that all illegal gypsy camps in the city would be dismantled.

A bill going through parliament includes a provision calling for a census of homeless people to be entered into a database held by the interior ministry. Doctors would also be allowed to report illegal immigrants to the authorities, something which is currently banned.

Italian police accused of aggression in gypsy camp sweep

By Guy Dinmore in Tor de Cenci, Italy
Published: February 4 2009 14:30 Last updated: February 4 2009 14:30

One moment Giorgio was returning from his morning job driving kids to school and the next, he says, he was forced by police to sit on the ground and sing “happy birthday” while security forces cordoned off and searched the camp where he and some 250 gypsies live on the edge of Rome.

Giorgio’s “punishment” – he said he was told to sit and sing “louder, louder” – was imposed after he had his arm twisted for questioning the police barring his way. An officer came later and admonished his “aggressive” deputy.

The operation at Tor De Cenci (Tower of Rags), a dormitory town just south of Rome, began on Monday and continued the next day as part of a wider sweep of gypsy camps around Rome.

Gypsies said they were told the operation was a “census”. They had their documents checked against a computerised list and their homes – built out of shipping containers – searched. About 10 men and women were taken away in a bus, with all but one later released.

Women complained of verbal abuse and said their children were terrified by the police dogs. They were angry that for about nine hours they were denied permission to leave the camp to buy food.

Police said they found a small amount of narcotics, some bullets and a stolen Porsche.

Similar operations have taken place at several gypsy camps around Rome over the past week.

Unusually, however, this time police are being joined by the army. The gypsies at Tor De Cenci - who all originate from former Yugoslavia - described the soldiers as “dressed like for war in Iraq”.

An army spokesman confirmed that units, possibly including Folgore paratroopers, had been deployed in support of police forces to help patrol and search “illegal” gypsy camps in Rome.

The centre-right government on Wednesday confirmed that the nationwide deployment last summer of 3,000 troops to help police “keep Italy safe” had been extended for another six months.

In Rome, which has 800 soldiers assigned, troops also guard embassies to free up police for other duties. In Naples – where a local politician was reported to have been shot dead on Tuesday by the Mafia - the army has been on patrol against organised crime and illegal immigrants.

Catholic volunteer aid workers say the operation this week at Tor De Cenci is aimed at “separating good from bad” among the gypsies, with the aim of establishing better living conditions for those allowed to remain, possibly in yet to be built “maxi-camps”. Some small illegal settlements have been destroyed.

Rome’s right-wing mayor, Gianni Alemanno, was elected last April on a promise to “expel” many gypsies who are widely blamed for spreading crime. Now he is active in trying to improve conditions at some camps and plans to build new ones. He has a budget of €23m.

It remains unclear exactly what criteria will be used to determine which gypsies can remain. Aid groups estimate that some 50,000 gypsies have arrived in recent years from Romania, adding to the 20,000 or so who had fled former Yugoslavia.

“Our government wants to remove some horrible camps and create new well-equipped settlements and fully integrate Romanian children into the school system, protecting them from all sorts of street crime,” one official said, quoting Roberto Maroni, interior minister.

Last week, Mr Alemanno reached an agreement with ex-Balkan gypsies from Casilino camp, which provided for the reconnection of water and electricity in exchange for cooperation when the time comes to move the camp. He also left open the possibility of allocating proper housing, which is what gypsy representatives ask for.

Municipal police are also drawing up pacts whereby gypsies will be allowed to stay in camps, but under monitoring that would include cameras, fences and regular patrols.

The issue of granting citizenship to children born in Italy still has not been resolved. One aid source said the National Alliance, a right-wing party in the ruling coalition, had wanted to include this in the recently passed security law. But it withdrew the clause before the vote, for fear of being accused of going soft.

Thomas Hammarberg, human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe who last month voiced his dismay at the appalling conditions in gypsy camps he visited, is urging Italian politicians to act carefully and not penalise a whole community because of a “few criminals”.

“They should rather stand up for human rights and respect for those who are different,” he said.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

Italy: Euro MPs to visit Gypsy camps in Rome

Brussels, 4 Sept. (AKI) - A delegation of MPs from the European Parliament are planning to visit several Gypsy camps in the Italian capital, Rome, later this month.

Belgian MP Gerard Deprez told Adnkronos International (AKI) he will lead the group of seven European members of Parliament who will visit Rome from 18-20 September.

The fact-finding mission is taking place as the Italian government is carrying out a controversial census of Roma Gypsy camps in major cities, which includes fingerprinting.

Deprez said "practical difficulties" had forced the European Parliament delegation to scale back its visit, which was originally due to include Gypsy camps in the southern city of Naples and the northern industrial capital, Milan.

The visit is taking place in consultation with Italy's Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, and will include meetings with members of the Italian government, Rome's Mayor, Gianni Alemanno, and the government's top public order representative, the Prefect of Rome, Carlo Mosca.

Italy's conservative government said on Thursday that it had been "fully vindicated" after the European Commission said the fingerprinting of Roma Gypsies in Italian camps did not amount to ethnic discrimination and was in line with EU law.

European Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot's spokesman Michele Cercone said earlier on Thursday the Italian census did not seek ''data based on ethnic origin or religion."

The Italian government's fingerprinting of Gypsies has the sole aim of ''identifying persons who cannot be identified in any other way,'' he said.

The fingerprinting of children was only being carried out ''in strictly necessary cases and as the ultimate possibility of identification,'' Cercone said.

However, the Commission would continue to monitor the way the survey was being carried out, Cercone said.

The fingerprinting campaign has been criticised by human rights organisations, the UN children's charity UNICEF, the European Parliament and the Romanian Government, on the grounds that it had inflamed anti-immigrant feeling in Italy and encouraged vigilante attacks.

In June Gypsy camps in Naples were set on fire in arson attacks after a Roma Gypsy girl was accused of trying to steal a baby.

The Roma census was compared by both Jewish and Catholic groups in Italy to Nazi racial discrimination and persecution.

The Italian government argues that the census is intended to stop Gypsy children begging and stealing, but also to help them gain access to the Italian health and education systems.

Maroni has defended the dismantling of illegal Roma camps and other measures targeting illegal immigrants, including expulsions.

He claims the government wants to identify those who have the right to stay in Italy and make sure they can live in "decent conditions".

There are an estimated 160,000 Roma Gypsies in Italy, nearly half of whom were born in Italy and have Italian citizenship.