Letter from EveryOne Group to the Romanian institutions
To the Romanian Ambassador in Rome,
after witnessing the ordeals of Romanian citizens of the Roma ethnic group, or poor Romanians who want to update their papers or renew their passports/identity cards in order to return to Romania, we feel a duty to protest most strongly against the services offered by the Romanian Consulate and Embassy. It is hard to believe that people who belong to a persecuted people; living in abject poverty and often with health problems; do not receive any help from their own country.
They survive by begging on the street, yet the Consulate and Embassy ask them to undertake the cost of transport to their offices (after which they are charged large sums for their documents - 80 euros for travel papers/permit) and they provide no service for the replacement of identity cards when they have been mislaid or damaged in Italy. They are left to their own devices or the generosity of Italian citizens. The Romanian Government is making a bad impression on an international level.
I have spoken to the President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Gianfranco Fini, and with the Ministry of the Interior: I have asked the Italian Government to foot the bill, seeing the Romanian Government has decided to leave its most unfortunate citizens to their own devices. We will also be asking the European Commission to intervene, but the situation is urgent and it would be a civil act by the Romanian Government to do something concrete and not force its poorest citizens to wander around from one Italian city to the next, (persecuted by the police and racists), merely because they do not have the money to return to Romania or move to a more welcoming country.
We are appealing to you to acknowledge how serious this humanitarian tragedy affecting your poorest citizens and those of the Roma ethnic group really is. We are asking you not to continue with this policy of neglect and speculation. In order to pay for their journey and documents, Roma men and women are forced to beg for months, while being subjected to all kinds of ill-treatment.
We have to activate a toll free number, and assistance with documents and travel expenses for poor Romanians and Romanian Roma. And we have to do it immediately, to prevent irreparable damage to Romania’s reputation, a country which possesses enough pride and civility to solve this emergency without delay.
Gruppo EveryOne
Tel: (+ 39) 334-8429527 (+ 39) 331-3585406
