ROMANIA: Looking to Rome to Escape the Roma

By Claudia Ciobanu BUCHAREST, Jul 22 (IPS) - A decision by Italian authorities to fingerprint nomads -- mostly Roma -- is supported by many Romanians, in spite of statements from Romanian officials condemning the measure as discriminatory. According to Italian human rights organisation Opera Nomadi, approximately 160,000 Roma currently live in Italy. Most of them inhabit improvised camps on the outskirts of towns. Roughly 60,000 come from Romania, which has Europe's largest Roma community, numbering close to 2.5 million in a population of 22 million. The Roma are believed to have migrated to Europe from India since the 14th century. Following several highly publicised reports of Roma, often from Romania, committing crimes in Italy, the Italian centre-right government declared a one-year state of emergency May 21 in relation... [read full story]