Roma protest against fingerprinting in Italy

Today 11 July between 10:00 – 12:30, in Vienna, the representatives of the Roma civil society, present to the OSCE Meeting on the Sustainable Roma Policy are organizing a march protesting against the violent attacks and the ethnically motivated “security measures” adopted by the Italian Government targeting Roma and Sinti, in particular in the matter of fingerprinting of Roma and children.

Civil society representatives participation to the OSCE conference are concerned with the increased insecurity of Roma and Sinti in Italy as a result of actions and ideologies of right wing groups which remained unchallenged and even made respectable by authorities and politicians.

In Italy, expressions of racism and xenophobia against Roma have reached new and astounding proportions in recent month. The Italian authorities have failed to condemn acts of violence and aggression against Roma and no person has yet been held legally accountable despite a seriously increasing number of incidents of anti-Romani pogroms leading to the demolishing of Roma camps with Molotov cocktails in Italy. Specifically, the fingerprinting of Roma and Sinti is an act racial discrimination and we urge the Italian authorities to stop this ethnic profiling immediately.

The march will start in front of the premises of the Fundamental Rights Agency (Rahlgasse 3 – Gumpendorferstrasse – Burgring and Heldenplatz – stopping in front of Holfurg Palace)