Attack on Dutch tourists in Rome triggers new immigration debate
(AFP)
24 August 2008


ROME - A brutal rape attack on a Dutch couple in Rome unleashed a new debate on Sunday on immigration and security in the Italian capital.

"Immigration continues to pose a problem for assuring security in the city," Rome's right wing mayor Gianni Alemanno said of the attack in an interview with the la Stampa newspaper published Sunday.

A Dutch man and his wife were on a bicycle holiday and were camping on rough ground on the edge of Rome when they were attacked late Friday, allegedly by two Romanians.

The attackers beat the couple, took 1,500 euros, and then forced the 56-year-old man to watch as they raped his wife, four years his junior.

Both were hospitalized, with the man suffering from fractures and his wife in a state of shock, according to press reports.

The two alleged attackers, were two shepherds, aged 20 and 32, who were staying at a camp site where the Dutch couple had tried to find a place.

Alemanno, a member of the right-wing National Alliance party, said the couple had been "unwise" to camp away from organised accommodation.

The right-wing government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has linked crime and illegal immigration and passed a series of crackdown measures.

Tough new immigration policies have focused on Romanian gypsies in particular, whom many Italians blame for rising crime across the country. The left wing has said the Berlusconi efforts have failed.

"Insecurity has worsened," said Democratic Party deputy Roberto Giachetti.
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