Thread: Italy arrests 400 in illegal immigrants swoop

Italy arrests 400 in illegal immigrants swoop
Posted Fri May 16, 2008 8:34am AEST

Italian police announced overnight the arrest of hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants in a sign of the determination of Silvio Berlusconi's new right-wing Government to clamp down.

Police arrested 383 people including 268 foreigners, with 53 immediately taken to the border for expulsion, in a week-long operation stretching from northern Italy to the Naples area.

Mr Berlusconi swept back to power for a third term as Prime Minister last week promising to get tough on illegal immigrants, blamed by many for crime.

He is readying new laws to screen immigrants and jail or expel those breaking the law.

Those arrested came from Eastern Europe, Albania, Greece, North Africa and China, and face charges ranging from illegal entry into Italy to prostitution, drug trafficking and robbery.

The policeman in charge of the Italian operation, Francesco Gratteri, told reporters the sweep was not aimed at any specific category or ethnic group.

"The sole objective were criminals who have caused a sensation of rising alarm in society," he said.

- Reuters
http://www.abc.net.au:80/news/stories/2 ... 246451.htm

400 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARRESTED IN ITALY

Hey, what a novel concept!

The Associated Press and Reuters are reporting that the newly installed conservative party of Italy led by former and current President Silvio Berlusconi, has begun to act on what the voters of Italy cried out for in the last elections: they asked the leaders of Italy to control their borders and expel illegal immigrants.

The police in Italy arrested nearly 400 people and immediately expelled 53 of them. The Italian police said that they were not specifically looking for a certain racial or ethnic background when they pursued the illegal immigrants.

Just recently the country of Libya, who is a big source of illegal immigrants coming to the country of Italy via rickety and unsafe boats, arrested and detained nearly 250 would-be illegal immigrants.

Is the Bush administration willing to sit down and talk with Berlusconi of Italy or Sarkozy of France and see how they are willing and able to control their country’s border and stop illegal immigration? Are President Bush and his advisers willing and able to listen to the voters of the United States of America and do what they have been asked to do?

- Citizen Haines
http://citizenhaines.wordpress.com:80/2 ... -in-italy/

Thursday, 15th May 2008 - 11:53CET

Italy arrests hundreds in illegal immigrants swoop
Reuters

Italian police arrested hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants on Thursday in a sign of the new right-wing government's determination to clamp down.

Some of those held in the operation, which stretched from northern Italy to the Campania region around Naples, were ordered to be immediately expelled.

Silvio Berlusconi swept back to power for a third term as prime minister last week promising to get tough on illegal immigrants, who are blamed by many Italians for crime. His government is preparing new laws to screen immigrants.

In Rome, the police raided at least one makeshift camp of Roma people from Eastern Europe, who bear the brunt of widespread public concern about immigrant crime.

Television showed police loading some Roma men onto buses in Rome's biggest settlement for people known in Italy as "nomads".

Romania, a fellow EU member which has Europe's biggest Roma population, has warned Italy against an outbreak of "xenophobia" against its people, though Berlusconi's government has reassured Bucharest that Romanians are not being targeted.

Illegal Roma camps in Naples had to be evacuated by police this week after local people, angry at an alleged baby-snatching incident involving a 17-year-old Roma girl, set fire to their shacks repeatedly during the night. Nobody was injured.

Italy's new interior minister, Roberto Maroni from the anti-immigrant Northern League party, is rushing out emergency legislation that could bring back passport checks on Italy's European Union borders, despite its membership of the Schengen passport-free zone. He also wants to make illegal immigration a jailable offense and speed up the deportation process.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/vi ... ants-swoop

Published Thursday May 15, 2008
Italy arrests nearly 400 in security crackdown
By ARIEL DAVID Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
http://omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1000&u_sid=10335902

ROME (AP) - Italian police have arrested nearly 400 people - mostly foreigners from Romania and North Africa - in a weeklong crackdown on street crime and illegal immigration, authorities said Thursday.

The sweep was one of the first actions taken by conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's new government, which has pledged to improve safety on the streets following a spate of crimes in recent months blamed on foreigners.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni insisted the crackdown was on criminals, not foreigners, and said his country would abide by EU rules with any expulsions.

"There is no problem with the Romanian community," Maroni said Thursday, adding that the government would "target only those who commit crimes, independently from their citizenship."

Maroni spoke alongside his Romanian counterpart, Cristian David, who had traveled to the Italian capital to discuss cooperation amid pledges by Berlusconi's government to combat crime.

Also Thursday, officers in Rome raided a camp of Gypsies and detained scores of Bosnians and Romanians without proper immigration papers, police said.

Other Gypsy camps were evacuated in Naples, southern Italy, earlier in the week after attackers set huts on fire, and angry residents in neighboring areas protested against an alleged attempt by a Gypsy youth to kidnap a baby.

Maroni denied Italy was planning mass expulsions of immigrants, stressing that Rome would abide by EU rules and seek to expel only foreigners who committed crimes.

His talks with David came hours after police announced the arrests of 383 people, including some 270 foreign citizens - mainly Romanians and North Africans - since May 7. They had also expelled 53 people, most of them Nigerians or Albanians, the Interior Ministry said.

Most are suspected of robberies, illegal immigration, human trafficking for prostitution and drug trafficking, officials said.

"This operation targets those crimes that are connected to the bigger phenomenon of illegal immigration," Francesco Gratteri, a top police official, told a news conference earlier Thursday. The operation was carried out in cooperation with Romanian authorities.

The Romanian minister stressed Bucharest's strong economic and political ties with Italy and said his country was eager to cooperate on security.

"Romanians who live abroad must respect the laws of the host country," David said, insisting that most Romanians who live in Italy are law-abiding.

There are about 560,000 Romanians living in Italy, making up roughly 1 percent of the country's population.

Maroni and David said their governments would create a joint commission to improve cooperation between police forces and discuss immigration.

Berlusconi's government is preparing tougher measures against illegal immigrants, with the first expected to be approved at a Cabinet meeting next week.

Maroni has suggested Italy might try to restrict the entry of some Romanians into the country, even though Romania joined the European Union last year.

On Thursday, he said he would back requests by mayors of some major cities - including the new right-wing mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno - who want the government to appoint commissioners with special powers to deal with what they say is a Gypsy crisis in their cities.