A persecution taking place among the indifference and silence of the media.
Milan, October 18th, 2009. In Milan and many other Italian cities the ethnic cleansing and persecutory policies against the Roma and Sintis continues. In Lombardy’s chief town, a department of the police force devotes its time to the identification and clearance of “squatter” settlements inhabited by Roma citizens and refugees. These measures are carried out without the offer of assistance and alternative lodgings.
When it comes to abandoned buildings, after the clearance and the charges of illegal occupation, the authorities wall up the openings to “secure” the buildings and prevent other unfortunates taking refuge there. The Italian Government has set aside about 20 million Euros (2009-2010) for this persecution and the camp clearances in Milan alone. In Rome this horror budget is even higher. This institutional rejection of families belonging to the Roma ethnic group is steadily increasing and what is more, it is taking place among the general indifference of the media and Italian citizens. It is enough to consider that if about 160,000 Roma were living in Italy in 2006, today their numbers have fallen to less than 40,000 - including those of Italian nationality. 120,000 Roma have been expelled from Italy, either through official procedures, or through compulsory and violent expulsions carried out by the police force. These camp clearances and expulsions have been carried out with particular determination against the Roma originating from Romania.
At a local level there are no substantial differences as far as the brutality of these ethnic purges are concerned, between local, provincial and regional authorities administrated by both Right and Left wing parties. It must be pointed out that these actions are a serious violation of the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. It is a fact that as well as the mayors belonging to the Northern League (a party with deep-rooted xenophobic sentiments), they are matched for the methodical nature of the camp clearances and repression by administrators hailing from the Democratic Party; from Bologna, Florence, Turin, Rimini, Padua and Pesaro.
It is also a fact that during the anti-racism demonstration in Rome on October 17th, 2009, no banners or slogans protested against the conditions of Roma citizens in Italy and no representatives from Roma settlements were invited to take part. Figures released today by the penitentiary police have revealed yet another alarming figure for those who operate for the defence of human rights: at the present time about 3,000 Romanian Roma are being detained in Italian prisons, while hundreds of minors from the Roma ethnic group (again Romanians) are interned in reform structures or children’s homes.
If we think that there are about 3 - 4,000 Romanian Roma living on Italian soil at the present time, it means 50% of the Romanian Roma population are being held in prison, or are at least deprived of their freedom. These figures have no equal in any other part of the world - something that can only be compared to what the historians refer to as the Third Reich, during the years of the racial laws and the Holocaust. EveryOne Group and the anti-racist networks have received reports of hundreds of cases of police persecution and serious judicial errors being carried out against the Roma people (as well as the institutional violence they are subjected to). Studies, dossiers and articles have been published showing how Roma citizens have now become the scapegoats for the measures linked to public security.
Before the law, the Roma people (both adults and minors) are given prison sentences without having any real chance of obtaining a fair defence - and in many cases without even fully understanding what crime they are being accused of, as interpreters are very rarely present in court. Roma citizens facing a legal charge consider themselves fortunate when they are given the chance to plea bargain in order to obtain release. EveryOne Group (which in the next few days will publish a detailed report on the clearances of Roma squatter settlements on Italian soil over the last two years) is appealing yet again to the EU institutions and to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to take action and initiate suitable measures against both the central and local authorities in Italy.
EveryOne Group is asking for an end to this persecution which is taking place among the indifference of the media (unfortunately, newspapers and Italian TV stations are often controlled by both Right and Left wing political parties). This indifference is causing unheard of suffering, the splitting up of families, leading to many deaths and a horrifying crisis of democracy and civilty in Italy.
In the photo, four young Roma musicians from Romania playing for a few coins in Milan. The boys and their families have been subjected to many episodes of intolerance and persecution from the Italian authorities.
