Hardline Italian minister in call for ‘census’ of Roma community
Move sparks anger after stand-off on migrants
ITALY’S HARDLINE interior minister, who sparked a multi-nation showdown by refusing entry to a Mediterranean Sea rescue boat packed with 630 migrants, is now taking aim at Italy’s minority Roma community.
Matteo Salvini told a Lombardy television station he wants to conduct a census or “registry” of Roma in Italy.
Mr Salvini, the leader of Italy’s right-wing League party, insisted later the project’s purpose was not to identify individual Roma. “I’ve asked the ministry to prepare a dossier on the Roma question in Italy,” he said, adding that the current situation of Roma, also known as gipsies, was “chaos” several years after a crackdown.
Italy has a large Roma community that includes people originally from Romania and the former Yugoslavia. Authorities periodically clear out the camps where many live on the outskirts of big cities.
Mr Salvini’s remarks sparked denunciation from centre-left politicians, who warned that Italy had a “terrible” history with its Fascist-era census of Jews.
“You can work for security and respect for rules without becoming fascist,” tweeted Democratic legislator Ettore Rosato. “The announced census of Roma is vulgar and demagogical.”
Mr Salvini stressed that he had no intention of taking digital fingerprints or making index cards of individual Roma. He said he wants a study of the overall situation.
“We are aiming primarily to care for the children who aren’t allowed to go to school regularly because they prefer to introduce them to a life of crime. We also want to check how millions of euro that come from European funds are spent,” he said in a statement.
He was asked about the Roma by TV interviewers and callers complaining about migrants,