Opinio Juris

I have blogged recently about the EU's encouraging -- if insufficient -- criticism of Italy's shameful persecution of its Roma population. On Friday, the Council of Europe added its two cents:

Europe's top rights body, the Council of Europe, on Friday voiced "deep concern" at a series of recent attacks against the Roma gypsies and immigrants and their treatment in Italy.

The attacks, the worst of which involved the torching by a local mob last month of a gypsy camp outside Naples have already drawn criticism from the European Union and from rights groups. Copycat attacks followed in other cities.

Police arrested several hundred 'undocumented' immigrants last month in a controversial series of raids on shanty towns across Italy.

"Roma and immigrants have been the subject of violent racist attacks and entire communities have been held responsible for criminal acts committed, or allegedly committed, by individuals from these communities," the Council of Europe's racism and xenophobia monitoring body (ECRI) said in a statement.

"In the context, ECRI particularly regrets the persistent racist and xenophobic discourse by some Italian politicians, even at the highest levels, and in the media," the statement continued.

It is difficult to overstate just how disgusting Italy's actions have become. The most recent plan is to kick Roma out of the country unless they can prove they have homes and jobs:

The new conservative government in Italy, led by prime minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed to clamp down on illegal immigration. Special Roma Gypsy commissioners have been appointed in several of the country's major cities.

Under a planned government decree, EU citizens - which would include Romanian Gypsies - must have adequate housing and regular incomes to stay in Italy for more than three months.

The decree would also make it easier to expel illegal immigrants.

"The Italian authorities are taking measure whose conformity with national and international human rights standards is questionable," said ECRI.

A survey earlier this month by Italian research institute Demos-Coop, showed eight out of ten Italians want Roma Gypsy camps dismantled.

A poll last month by Italian daily La Repubblica found that 68 percent of Italians want to deal with the "Roma Gypsy problem" by expelling all of them.

A few weeks ago, a Romanian Euro MP described Italy's actions as "clearly fascist." I bristled at the use of the word "fascist" at the time, but with each passing day the description becomes more accurate. The "Roma Gypsy problem"? "Special Roma Gypsy Commissioners"? Remind you of anything?

The planned decree is particularly perverse, of course, because Italian politicians are doing everything they can to ensure that the Roma don't have the adequate housing they would need to remain in the country. One example:

Local activists in the northeastern Italian city of Mestre and politicians from the anti-immigrant Northern League are protesting the construction of a settlement for Sinti Gypsies.

Northern League parliamentarian Corrado Callegari and local party councillor Alberto Mazzonetto have blocked access to the camp, preventing building from getting underway.

The protest began more than three weeks ago, when a small group of protesters started gathering daily at the entrance to the building site.

The protesters are demanding a plebiscite on the planned Sinti Gypsy settlement which will include houses and a caravan park. They have also staged protests at local Gypsy camps.

The local council intends to accommodate some 40 Sinti Gypsy families at the site, which will cost 2.8 million euros to build.

The Northern League claims the money should be spent on shelter for homeless Italian citizens from the Mestre-Veneto area who have asked the local council for help. The Sinti Gypsies should not get preferential treatment and must wait their turn to be housed, the Northern League argues.

Bowing to pressure, the mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari had halted building work at the planned Sinti Gypsy settlement, but has promised this will soon re-start.

"Preferential treatment"? Are they kidding? Were that it were so!

NOTE: Media descriptions of the Roma's plight in Italy continues to astound and depress me. The final article mentioned above contains this little gem: "The origins of the Sinti Gypsies are uncertain, but they may have come from Pakistan's southeastern Sindh province." So what? What does that have to do with the story, given that the article itself notes that nearly half of Italy's Roma are Italian citizens? Is the point simply to make the Roma seem more Other -- and more dangerous, given that Pakistan is in the scary Middle East?