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Row over move to fingerprint Roma

ROME: Italy’s Interior Minister has touched off a storm with a proposal to fingerprint Roma people living in camps in Italy, including children.

The proposal, made as part of a campaign by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative government to crack down on street crime, has drawn accusations of racism and discrimination at home and abroad. But the Minister dismissed the criticism and vowed in an interview to push ahead with a census of Roma, including the fingerprinting.

“We’ll go ahead with the census and with all the other measures,” Roberto Maroni was quoted by Corriere della Sera as saying.

Maroni, speaking to lawmakers this week, explained that his plan was “to fingerprint all (Roma), including children, to avoid phenomena such as begging.”

The centre-left opposition was quick to attack Mr. Maroni, calling the proposal unacceptable and uncivilised. “It is an act of racism,” said centrist leader Pier Ferdinando Casini.

In recent weeks, Italian officials have spoken of a “Roma emergency” in big cities, linking crime to the Roma, also called Gypsies. In Naples, camps had to be evacuated after attackers set huts on fire and angry residents in neighbouring areas protested against the alleged attempt by a Gypsy woman to kidnap a baby. Authorities in Rome raided a camp to check for proper papers. — AP

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