We won't be Berlusconi's scapegoats, say Gypsies
Tom Kington in Rome meets families evicted by the city's new right-wing mayor at their isolated camp and hears them demand 'a few rights'



In a desolate field just beyond the Rome ring road, a single line of caravans is a stark sign of the times in the new and increasingly anti-immigrant Italy. The vehicles are the modest homes of 25 Gypsy families, who have become the first victims of a campaign waged by the city's new right-wing mayor to crack down on foreign criminals and illegal Gypsy camps.

Oblivious to their parents' distress, children laugh and duck behind cars, squirting water pistols at each other as the adults contemplate an uncertain future. But the white sheets waving on clothes lines seem to symbolise a mood of surrender and gloom. Police, accompanied by dogs, have just chased this community from the city centre site it had occupied for 20 years.

'We work for a living, but in a couple of hours, everything we had created, the relationship we had built with locals over decades, was wiped out,' said Alessandro, 36.

The eviction, against the advice of Rome's police chief, was the latest sign of the disturbing groundswell of resentment building across Italy against the 150,000-strong Roma population. In Naples, a camp was recently firebombed. Near Venice, well supported demonstrations have mobilised locals against a proposed new camp agreed by the council. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's promise to get tough on the perceived lawlessness of Gypsies and foreigners earns him huge approval ratings and gives the green light to right-wing allies, such as Rome's mayor, Gianni Alemanno, to take drastic action.

The tide of ill-feeling against the Gypsies has become so strong that, for some, Friday's Euro 2008 match between Italy and Romania, which ended in a 1-1 draw, became an opportunity to offer support for the beleaguered minority. Some government critics declared they would support the Romanians as an expression of solidarity with the geographical roots of many of Italy's Gypsies. A group of protesters also took to the streets in the capital, including Roma women dancing in traditional dress, Italian intellectuals and slow-marching Jewish survivors from Germany's death camps.

Marking the first such demonstration in Italy, the protesters wore the same black triangle bearing the letter Z as worn by Gypsy inmates at the camps. 'We don't want to be scapegoats,' said Roma singer and academic Santo Spinelli, who helped organise the march. 'Italians are not racist, but we must put an end to the misinformation, mystification and media violence in this country.'

Such sentiments cut little ice with the likes of the mayor. The fact that many of those targeted are Italian citizens also appears to offer little protection. Alessandro, like the rest of the Gypsy group, was born in Italy and carries an Italian passport. Not surprisingly, he is furious. 'I did my military service, I vote and I would like a few rights,' he said.

The community to which he belongs has been in Italy for three generations, migrating in 1936 from Fiume, which was then Italian territory and is now part of Croatia. 'Those who stayed behind died in German concentration camps,' said their spokesman Aldo Hudorovich.

The group initially kept on the move, then, two decades ago, they settled in Rome's Testaccio neighbourhood and their children were sent to local schools. Now they believe that they, and others like them, have become scapegoats for the Berlusconi government, which has pledged a crackdown on crime. 'The government cannot keep control of foreign criminals entering the country and we are the easy target,' said Hudorovich.

A recent survey found that 68 per cent of respondents wanted all Italy's Gypsies expelled, while another poll, commissioned by newspaper La Repubblica, discovered that 77 per cent now want all unauthorised camps demolished.

In Testaccio, the Gypsies gradually formed bonds with locals, coming to be accepted. But the new ugly mood in Rome was apparent even prior to the forced eviction. 'Even with the new atmosphere we continued to be on good terms with locals,' said Sonia, 43, 'but outside the area people began to shout "Ugly Gypsy" at me.' Elsewhere in Rome there have been reports of petrol bombs being hurled into camps.

'It's OK for the men to go around,' said Alessandro, 'but because of their traditional long dresses we are afraid to be in public with our wives.'

For the children, it has been a bemusing and painful experience. The police arrived in Testaccio on the last day of the school term and were persuaded to give a stay of execution until the children returned from school. 'Our friends did not change their views towards us, and came along with teachers to say goodbye when we were evicted,' said Isacco, 13.

Then the group drove out of the centre of Rome to a new, temporary site located in a field near Rome's Tor Vergata university campus. Hudorovich said none of the men in the camp were venturing out to work yet. 'Right now we have the kids to watch and we are staying put to see how we are accepted,' he said.

The signs are not good. The university's rector had one simple reaction: 'It's university property. When will they be evicted?'

ciao
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How did you let Berlusconi get back into power. That man should be behind bars. Italy amongst others, shame Europe.

It's like that in most countries, at leas the italians have the balls to be open about it

On the issue of Rom people though:

We have our own travelling people here in Norway, called Tater (derogatory). They are traditionally related to the mainland gypsies, but have been here so long that they have interbred and look more or less native. And most are domesticsized, i.e. living permanently in one place - travelling only in summertime. No problem.

Only the last couple of years, following Schengen and the opening of eastern europe we have had a new influx of travellers - usually bulgarian or rumenian - who come in the summer season to skim off the surplus. Professional beggars and pocket thieves in the cities, or selling fake gold jewellery along the roadside stops in the rurals - or even hassling old peoples homes (mind you that is usually Latvians or Lithuanians)

And it constitutes a growing problem... Now, whenever there has been a crime, the newspaper only cites the nation of origin of the perps, but people are again starting to talk about the "ffin gypsies". Animosities are coming back, and to be quite frank: They are bringing it on themselves, and all their law abiding kinsfolk. Its sad.

South Africa has a serious immigrant and xenophobia problem. Refugee camps were established in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town following the attacks on foreigners about three months ago.
About 50 people were killed - beaten, hacked and burnt - and thousands more kicked out of the informal settlements around these major centres.
The foreigners are perceived to be criminals, stealing local jobs and, strangely, stealing local women.

The foreigners now face being re-integrated into the communities they were kicked from. The government is convinced all is okay and is bent on sending them back. But the foreigners are fighting the Government in the Constitutional Court to keep the camps open because they fear being butchered when they return.
That is what is most likely to happen. Everyone but the government knows these people will die if they return to these settlements.

Every weekend in the larger informal settlements, groups of drunk and high youths patrol the dusty streets and between the shacks and search drinking holes for foreigners. About a month ago they hacked and stoned a man to death because he was Mozambiqan.

It was established that about 10% of Johannesburg's population is foreign. The real problem comes when the foreigners stop being victims, mobalise and fight back.

END!

But the problem here is not that the immigrants from nearby countries struggle for survival - rather they are tempted by the relative difference in wealth...