Archive for May 18th, 2008
Naples
ROME — Underscoring the new Italian government’s determination to crack down on illegal immigration and what the government contends is associated crime, Italy’s police arrested hundreds of people this week in a sweep of migrant shantytowns in major urban areas across the country, the police announced Thursday.
Firemen hose down a camp of Roma people that was set on fire on the outskirts of Naples on Wednesday.
Roma left a camp near Naples by bus Thursday. Camps were attacked after a Roma girl was accused of trying to steal a baby.
Nearly 400 people were arrested, including more than 100 who were immediately expelled. The police said more than 100 of those arrested were suspected of violating immigration laws, 180 of theft or prostitution, and 92 of drug dealing. Those arrested included 50 Moroccans and 32 Romanians.
The widely publicized raids were a strong signal from Italy’s new right-wing government, which is led by Silvio Berlusconi and includes the anti-immigrant Northern League Party, that it will keep its promises to pursue tougher policies toward immigrants.
“The anti-immigrant sweep was a positive thing because that’s what people want,” said Umberto Bossi, the minister of institutional reforms and federalism. “People ask us for safety, and we must give it to them.”
Mr. Berlusconi’s coalition, the People of Freedom party, ran on a platform that declared that it would “empty illegal camps, and get rid of nomads who have no residence and no means of subsistence.”
On Saturday, several hundred Italians attacked a camp of Roma, or Gypsies, on the eastern outskirts of Naples brandishing sticks and throwing homemade incendiary devices, after a 16-year-old Roma girl was accused of trying to steal a baby. The police were called to restore order and no one was injured, but the episode led national news programs.
Anti-immigrant sentiments have become harder to square with the European Union’s open border policy, which allows union citizens to settle in any member state. In January, Bulgaria and Romania were admitted to the European Union and their citizens may now live legally in Italy without any special permit.
That includes the Roma ethnic minority, who tend to live separately and resist integration.
An estimated 670,000 illegal immigrants are in Italy.
