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Matteo Salvini demands report on Roma settlements so 'eviction plan' can be drawn up

We remain Human activists protest in front of Montecitorio Palace in solidarity with migrants in Rome, Italy, 15 July 2019 - REX
We remain Human activists protest in front of Montecitorio Palace in solidarity with migrants in Rome, Italy, 15 July 2019 - REX

Italy’s hard-line Interior minister Matteo Salvini has sent a letter to provincial representatives requesting “a report on the presence of Roma, Sinti and Camminanti settlements” in their territories within two weeks.

The ministry said on Tuesday that the aim is to have a clear outline of how many illegal camps there are on the Italian territory and where they are located in order to "draw up an eviction plan."

The head of the far-right League has made of a tough stance against illegal immigration his top political priority since he became a leader of the government coalition formed with the populist Five Star Movement a year ago.

Roma, Sinti and Caminanti are traditionally nomadic ethnic groups that have been living in European countries for decades.

According to the Council of Europe, there are between 120,000 and 180,000 Roma, Sinti and Caminanti in Italy, one of the lowest concentrations in Europe. Many of them have regular residents permits or acquired the Italian citizenship.

A 2017 report from the anti-discrimination group Association of 21 July noted, however, that Italy has been dubbed “the country of camps,” because in the last two decades it has been the most active in planning and creating outdoor camps where the Roma communities have been “segregated on ethnic grounds.”

Mr Salvini’s letter to prefects comes a day after hundreds of policemen in riot gear cleared an abandoned school in the outskirts of Rome occupied mainly by migrants, including women and children who lived there for years. Migrants and squatters set fire to tires, mattresses and garbage to try to resist the eviction, but police eventually forced them out.

That was just the latest of a list of evictions that Mr Salvini has planned across Italy, pledging he will have “zero tolerance” for anyone who illegally occupies abandoned buildings.

His call for a census of the nomadic Roma and Sinti people to drive out those lacking valid residence permits has been widely criticised as reminiscent of race-based laws introduced under Italy’s fascist regime.

But Mr Salvini, who insists that Italy will no longer be “Europe’s refugee camp,” still enjoys high approval ratings, amid growing hostility toward migrants in Europe and Italy.

His“closed ports” policy - which prevents humanitarian ships rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean from entering Italian harbors - has put him on a collision course with Italy’s European partners.