Stop anti-Gypsyism by joining our protest!

Following a sustained campaign carried out in a number of prominent media since the summer months of 2007, inciting panic about crimes purportedly committed by Romanians — and in particular Romanian Roma — the Italian government has passed an emergency decree facilitating the expulsion of Romanian citizens, with only limited procedural protections. In the context of agitating for these new draconian measures, media in Italy and Romania have participated in explicitly racist incitement, and a number of high-ranking officials have made explicitly anti-Romani statements.

In Romania, although some high-ranking public officials condemned the decree, there have also been expressions of anti-Romani hatred at very high level. For example, Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Adrian Cioroianu purportedly stated in an interview on 4 November 2007 related to the current crisis: “… I was wondering if we couldn’t buy a piece of land in an Egyptian desert where to send those people, those people who makes us (Romanians) a laughing stock. It is clear that if they go to Italy, there they still feel well, the climate is nice, they hear around them a Latin language they understand somehow in a month…” On 3 November 2007, Commissioner for Justice and Civil Liberties Mr. Franco Fratini, himself of Italian origin and with high-level links to Italian party politics, reportedly both urged Italian authorities to expel Romanians, as well as to pull down Romani camps in Italy to prevent persons from returning.

Several new policy initiatives in Italy and elsewhere appear deeply infected with anti-Romani considerations. There are evident systemic abuses of fundamental human rights ongoing now, directly linked to these new policies, as well as the threat of serious harm to race relations in Italy and Romania, as a direct result of the events of recent weeks.

An urgent action appeal letter, targeting the Romanian and Italian Prime Ministers, the Romanian President, the President of European Commission, and the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, is available athttp://www.romanetwork.org/protest2.htm. We urge you to please join the letter campaign, as well as to forward this communication to other interested parties.

This is a common initiative of a number of Roma Civil Organisations and Roma rights activists.