Marching for Roma Rights in Rome

Members of Italy`s Roma and Sinti communities demand more rights and better living conditions at a rally in Rome. A peaceful and colourful demand for more rights. Several hundred members of Italy’s Roma and Sinti communities marching through Rome, dancing and playing music as they protested against a recent government crackdown on their camps.

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Thousands of Roma demonstrated in the centre of Rome

Some wore black triangles with a Z in the centre – a reference to the many Roma people deported to concentration camps by the Nazis. Thousands of Roma have entered Italy since Slovakia and Romania joined the European Union.

A camp resident says conditions in the camps are poor – there’s no water or light. How can we live like that, she asks.

The recently elected centre-right government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has issued a number of security measures on crime and immigration.

The foreign minister says 30 per cent of crimes are committed by foreigners and they make up more than 40 per cent of Italy’s prison population.

This Roma high school student says many Italians discriminate against gypsies, they judge them and want to kick them out of the country. But nearly half of the 150,000 Roma gypsies living in Italy have Italian citizenship.

Now, they’re fighting for the rights that go along with that status.