HotNews.ro correspondent to Italy, quoted by Spanish daily El Pais

Illegal Gypsy immigrant camps in Rome’s outskirts were burnt last week and European newspapers read extensively about the incident. Spanish daily El Pais analyzes the situation of Gypsy communities in Italy. The newspaper reads that in Italy there are between 130 to 150 thousand Gypsies among which more than half are of Italian origin, 50 thousands come from Romania and the rest come from former Yugoslavia. El Pais quotes Miruna Cajvaneanu, a HotNews.ro correspondent to Italy, declaring that the Italian press manipulates public opinion by speaking only of Gypsy community members originating from Romania.

Cajvaneanu talks about an incident which happened several months ago when Ajmetevic, a Gypsy, killed four Italians in a car accident because he was drunk. Several days afterwards, Cajvaneanu reads, local authorities found out that the Gypsy was of Italian not Romanian origin. Even if the judge compelled the media to correct the information, everybody believed that he was Romanian.

El Pais, quoted by Romanian monitoring agency Rador reads that Gypsies from other countries migrated to Italy way before those in Romania started to flee to the Peninsula. However they have been largely ignored until 2001 when a flux of people from Romania have started to arrive to the country.

Italian daily Il Giornale read on January 2007 that Romanian Gypsies were invading Italy. Contrary, Caritas Italy expert Antonio Ricci declared that the information was a lie and the truth was that many illegal immigrants had the chance to turn to authorities to receive legal recognition.

Ricci declared that it was the Berlusconi government which stirred up the controversy against Gypsies. The newspaper adds that Berlusconi’s number one felon in Italy nowadays is the Gypsy community instead of concentrating upon the mob, Comora and N’drangheta.