In defence of Roma and migrants

Stop police raids! Stop racist attacks!


Friday 23rd MAY FROM 4.30 TO 6.00 PM

DEMONSTRATE IN FRONT OF THE ITALIAN CONSULATE,

38 Eaton Place
London SW1X 8AN

(nearest tube: Victoria)


Thousands of protesters, including many migrants, took to the streets in Verona, Italy, in defence of Roma and migrants and against racist attacks and police raids the 17th of May.

Between the 14th and 15thof May, Roma camps in the Napoli area had to be evacuated and one camp was burned to the ground by mobs with links with the Camorra (Napoli's equivalent of Mafia). Police did not even try to stop the violence but helped the Roma evacuate. Mobs were threatening to lynch them.

The incident was sparked by the alleged kidnap of baby by a teenage Rom girl - a very stereotypical accusation in the popular legend that depict Gypsies as monsters to fear.

In the same week police made nearly 400 arrests in raids across the country. 115 of the arrested are Italians, mostly of Rom ethnicity, 268 immigrants including Albanians, Romanians, Greeks, Moroccans and Chinese. Of those arrested, 53 were deported immediately and 65 were taken to detention centres. All were accused of a range of crimes from theft to illegal immigration to drug smuggling and three of prostitution.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, at the government with the fascists, who now call themselves Alleanza Nazionale, and the racist North League are delivering what they promised in their electoral campaign: in a fear-and-hate climax, the wholesale scapegoating and persecution of Roma and other ethnic minorities in the name of 'security'. Roma and Sinti have been targeted with totally exaggerated claims of involvement in criminal activities. That concernes nomads living in Italy for generations as well as Roma arrived more recently from Eastern Europe and especially from Romania.

While Roma camps were burning, migrants suspected of being 'illegal' were being targeted by police. New detention centres are promised in Italy, the length of detention to be extended to 18 months - a new concept introduced in Europe by Sarkozy - and new concentration camps to be built outside Europe, from Ceuta and Melilla to Libya and Egypt.

Protests in Italy and international condemnation, however, are having their effects and the Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, already had to amend his new security decree: he had to scrap his plan of making illegal immigration a criminal offence, punishable by one year imprisonment. He also had to back down from targeting nurses and care assistants without regular work permits.

Other plans in the Maroni decree that are seen as contravening international law and agreements are the suspension of Schengen agreement and unilateral closure of borders, which in Europe is permitted only in very exceptional circumstances related to national security. The institution of a Commissary for the Roma would be a serious aberration as police are supposed to investigate a crime, not an ethnic group!


Many people have been killed in the last week during anti-immigrants riots in South Africa, and thousands refugees, mainly from Zimbabwe, are fleeing in search of protection.


But everywhere anti-immigration policies are getting more and more barbaric and inhumane, with thousands of deaths at the borders, more prisons and more concentration camps, increasingly brutal deportations regardless of risk on return. At the same time ethnic minorities are being targeted, the Muslim community in UK are being persecuted under the guise of preventing terrorism, Roma and Travellers are under attack almost everywhere in Europe, everywhere migrants and refugees are being vilified by the press and portrayed as a menace. At the same time, our civil liberties are being eroded and identity cards are being introduced in the UK. First for the migrants, than for everybody else.


Say no to racism and no to immigration controls!

No One Is Illegal!


Called by Campaign Against Immigration Controls, No Borders London