News and Politics | July 02, 2008 | 2 comments

Gypsy children to be fingerprinted in Italy

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"Thousands of Roma Gypsy children and adults will be fingerprinted from Sunday in the Italian capital, Rome, despite strong criticism from European and religious organisations.

The fingerprinting and identification process will be coordinated with the Red Cross and 'cultural mediators' and the Roma will receive a sanitary card, allowing them access to Italy's social and health services.

Gypsy children, whose parents keep them out of school and send them to beg on the streets would lose custody of their children, under the plan announced by Maroni.

Of the 150,000 Roma Gypsies who live in Italy, about 70,000 have Italian citizenship. Many Roma Gypsies come from Romania."

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2 comments // Gypsy children to be fingerprinted in Italy

  • ninety0
    • 0
      ninety0  
    • This is quite a one sided account of the motivation behind this move.

      The Council of Europe has furiously criticised the Italian government for it's plans to fingerprint ethnic Roma, including all Roma children, hinting that such an action amounts to fascism.

      The move is spear- headed by the Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, a member of the Northern League ( a far right anti- immigration party which commonly uses xenophobic rhetoric to stir up public opinion, alarming the rest of Europe).

      These moves come against the background of Italy's highest appeal court recently ruling that discrimination against Roma is justifiable on the grounds that they are thieves.

    • 3 years ago
  • kewal91
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