Milan, March 25th, 2010.

From the fire in Livorno to the murders of Abdul Salam Guibre, the Romanian Ionut Cristian Birzudel, and the Moroccan Yussuf Errahali, there have been many murders committed for racist reasons - murders that are often (when there are no witnesses or surveillance cameras present) reported in the newspapers as “a settling of accounts between immigrants”. If we then consider the number of attacks, attempted murders, rapes and beatings, the numbers grow out of all proportion, placing Italy at the top of the list in the European Union for xenophobic and racist violence. EveryOne Group is carrying out some research into this incredible aspect of Italian society and collaborating on the same delicate topic with important international organisms. It is a difficult investigation which far too often has seen our activists/scholars hit by intimidation and serious forms of institutional repression (this in spite of the fact that we are carrying out our research on behalf, or in collaboration with, the most important international agencies and institutions). In Italy the politicians, authorities and media generally try to prevent the crimes committed against immigrants and Roma being reported as xenophobic crimes - which is what they are. This is because they wish to give the Italian people the impression that the security policies against foreigners are not identifiable with negative phenomena such as racism and xenophobia. As a result the present emergency is not considered the spread of racial hatred, but instead the inborn “anti-sociality” and criminal tendencies of non-Italians. It is no coincidence that the anti-immigrant, anti-Roma policies are put forward as policies for legality, security and against social and urban decay. It is a media strategy which also prevents the news getting out of Italy about the climate of racism that is now present on all levels of society. And this is one of the tasks our group has taken upon itself: to stop a curtain of silence and disinformation falling on the tragedy of racial violence and abuse. As well as the better known cases, it is important to point out that a great number of murders of immigrants are taking place without the culprits ever being brought to justice. We only have to search Google for “immigrant murdered”, “corpse of an immigrant found”, “immigrant’s body found without ID” etc. to realise how widespread this phenomena is and the extent of the political and media censorship of those who want it kept quiet.
If in 2008 25% of the victims of violence in Italy were foreigners ( http://ilsecoloxix.ilsole24ore.com/p/italia/2009/12/03/AMFascAD-omicidi_maggior_famiglia.shtml), today the percentage is even higher and very often the media does not even mention the presumed nationality of the murder victims. These are very high numbers which are unequalled in the European Union, because in Italy foreigners make up only 6.7% of the population.

In the photo, young Abdul Salam Guibre, known as Abba, victim of racial hatred

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