Italian official dismisses Egyptian criticism over migrant clashes

Jan 12, 2010, 15:34 GMT

Rome - Italy's foreign minister on Tuesday dismissed criticism levelled by the Egyptian government over last week's violence involving local residents, African immigrants and police in the southern Italian town of Rosarno.

'Nobody can accuse us of racism, above all the Egyptians who make up a large quota of legal immigration in Italy and who don't cause any problems to Italy,' Foreign Minister Franco Frattini was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency.

Frattini was speaking in Nouakchott, Mauritania, the first stop of a seven-nation African tour, which is also scheduled to include Egypt.

'I will explain to the Egyptians ... that we in Italy also want laws respected. Hence the type of violence like that seen on the streets of Rosarno is unacceptable,' Frattini said.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki on Tuesday said the clashes were one of the 'many violations' African migrants and minorities, including Arab and Muslim minorities face in Italy.

He charged that immigrants to Italy face discrimination, violence, hateful comments, economic hardship and deportation.

Frattini denied any religious overtones to the clashes in which nearly 70 people were injured - among them migrants, residents, and police officers - following two days of rioting sparked by the wounding last Thursday of several African labourers in a drive-by shooting carried out by unidentified gunmen.

Since then over 300 illegal immigrants were moved out of Rosarno.

'There was never an issue regarding the Arab minority. It was a case of ordinary violence against which the forces of law and order had to react,' Frattini said.

'The whole of Italy and I think the whole of Europe saw people attacking homes and setting cars on fire,' Frattini said referring to television images of the violence.

Local officials have suggested that the initial drive-by shooting may have been linked to the recruitment of illegal immigrants for work on local farms and that it may have served as punishment for migrants who had refused to pay protection money to the Calabrian mafia, the 'Ndrangheta.

The Vatican's newspaper has denounced what it said was 'Italian racism,' as manifested by attempts by Rosarno residents to hound the immigrants out of the town following the riots.

The clashes, 'have exposed the weakness of the system to accommodate and integrate (immigrants)' said Monsignor Bruno Schettino,the spokesman on migrant issues for Italy's Catholic bishops organization.

'It was a clash between the poor, and the side that was defeated was the poorest: the immigrants,' Schettino said.