Rome - Romanian President Traian Basescu on Thursday told
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that Bucharest disapproved
of Rome's policies toward the ethnic Roma, including their
fingerprinting.
'The Romanian government does not approve, I repeat, does not
approve of part of a large part of the measures of the Italian
government,' Basescu said at news conference with Berlusconi in Rome.
Basescu was referring to a census of ethnic Roma - known
colloquially as gypsies - ordered by the Italian government which
also involves fingerprinting, including children.
Basescu said Berlusconi had assured him during their talks, that
Roma children would only be fingerprinted with the authorization of
their parents, legal tutors or in the presence of a magistrate.
Berlusconi reiterated his centre-right government's stance that
the census and fingerprinting is part of plan to identify all Roma
children living in Italy to ensure that they attend school.
Berlusconi also rejected a recent motion by the European
Parliament which condemned his government's policies towards the
Roma, many of whom are immigrants from Romania.
'The European Parliament intervened with a politically motivated
response based on disinformation and unreality,' Berlusconi said.
Earlier Thursday, Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno accompanied Basescu
on a visit to a camp in the Italian capital occupied by a group of
Roma.
At the camp, Basescu witnessed some of the census process, which
in Rome is being conducted by Italian Red Cross officials operating
in camps and shanty towns occupied by Roma.
'We understand some of the measures taken by the Italian
government, but we cannot agree with a form of treatment which is
outside European Union norms,' Basescu said.
'I know you have a problem, which I have come to talk about,'
Basescu told Roma representatives, adding that a solution had to be
found for the unemployment problems of their community.
In a report issued Tuesday, the Council of Europe criticized
Italy's treatment of its Roma and Sinti minority population and
immigrants, accusing government officials of promoting a 'xenophobic'
environment in which a series of anti-immigrant attacks had taken
place.
In May several Roma settlements were attacked by residents from
neighbouring communities, following reports of an attempted child
kidnapping by a Roma teenager.
Surveys show many Italians associate the Roma with an increase in
crime.
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