A delegation of the European Parliament visited several camps of the Roma in Italy to see their living conditions. Thus, they evaluated the measures regarding the census of the people living in the “nomad camps” and their actual situation.
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The delegation, made of 19 MPs, all of them members of the LIBE Parliamentary Commission (Civil Freedoms, Justice and Internal Affairs) of the European Parliament visited several Roma camps from Italy between 18th and 19th of September 2008. The MEPs also met with the Roberto Maroni, Minister of Interior, and discussed about the census and fingerprinting of the Roma with the mayors from Rome, Naples and Milan.
Renate Weber, eurodeputy, was also part of the European Parliament delegation, and she presented her viewpoint following this documentation visit. In the opinion of the PNL MEP (ALDE), “the way of implementing the emergency measures, especially in Naples, was regrettable – we actually think it was unacceptable, because the data collected from those people had nothing to do with an identity card: finger prints, data on their ethnic origin and religion.
Meanwhile, added Renate Weber, we must point out that following the Resolution of the European Parliament, the Italian Minister of Interior drafted Recommendations on how to conduct the census, and these recommendations entered into force on the 27th of July.
The situation changed after this date, namely the census was no longer conducted by the carabineers, but by the Red Cross, based on people’s consent and without fingerprinting, and there were no other complaints from the NGOs”.
Renate Weber believes that there questions yet to be answered or questions that got unsatisfactory answers, such as:
“1. What was the urgency that caused this so-called census? Invoking a law that allows you to take such measures in case of natural catastrophes is only intended to find a legal basis, but there were no concrete arguments to support the emergency.
2. Eventually, the end of this census is not clear. If the objective was an exclusively social one, as the Italian authorities claim, especially to provide for schooling of children, it is obvious that no change or improvement occurred and that for now, there is not even a vision about what could be done in the future. Everything is on stand-by until the completion of the census, by the 15th of October.
3. It is not at all clear what happened with the data collected between May and July, when the Roma, including the children, were fingerprinted, how this data was used, if it was used for instance to identify potential criminals – because this is contrary to the Italian law and, obviously, to the European legislation. The Italian law provides even for penal sanctions for collecting and using data other than allowed by the law. According to the Recommendations of the Minister of Interior, this data should have been destroyed, but none of the authorities we discussed with confirmed such an action, but actually avoided to give an answer to this question.
4. Another big question mark concerns the Red Cross and whether it is allowed to collect such data upon the request of the authorities, namely to go and conduct a census on some camps they consider as “nomad camps”, because the authorities call them that, while these camps have been on site for decades now and inhabited exclusively by the Roma. And in the end it is not very clear what happens to the data gathered by the Red Cross itself, even if this action is conducted with those people’s consent.”
Speaking about the Roma Summit, organized last week by the European Commission, Renate Weber thinks that nothing is done at the level of the Commission until the European Council from December imparts a very clear task to the European Commission.
“I think we have a very big problem in the European Union as well, where we don’t have, for now, a vision – so no strategy either, but at least one vision – with regard to how the Union itself should relate to the Roma community and the measures that should be taken in view of their integration. An integration that implies, on the one hand, preserving their identity and, on the other hand, providing them access to quality education, healthcare, decent living conditions, non-discriminatory access to the labor market, including by adult vocational training, in order to give them the opportunity to get decent and properly paid jobs.”
“It is up to all 27 member states to agree upon and delegate the European Commission to take action in this respect“, added the PNL MEP. After their visit to Italy, the MEPs shall draft a report to be submitted to the European Parliament. (DIVERS – www.divers.ro)