security a la italiana sicurezza all'italiana securitate a la italiana

34
ITALY REPORT
Coalition that recently when she took her sick children to the hospital, the authorities took
away her baby, reportedly because the father was not present and because the police alleged that
she had stolen something. Neither being a single parent (if Hasima had been) nor an alleged
criminal are grounds for child removal in Italy. Hasima, whose husband is legally employed
in Italy, had to file a complaint to Italian courts before they were permitted to take their child
home. During this time, their child spent 4 days in an orphanage. Hasima informed the
Coalition that her case was not isolated, but that she was aware of numerous Roma in Milan
who had experienced similar interferences in their private lives. 52
Discriminatory Interferences by the State with the Right to
Privacy and Home
Aside from the abusive and discriminatory police raids of Romani homes highlighted
previously in Section 4 of this report, members of the Coalition noted several other ways
in which Italian officials discriminate against Roma in their daily lives.
e most obvious and intrusive form of discrimination regarding the right to privacy and
home was manifest in the placement of surveillance cameras throughout many of the formal
Romani camps visited by the Coalition. For example, the Municipality of Roma finances
the formal Camp Via Salone, a camp run on private property by an Italian association. e
Romani inhabitants of the camp are originally from Romania. is camp is controlled by
28 surveillance cameras which monitor every move made by the inhabitants. In Brescia, in
Northern Italy, surveillance cameras were present in the formal Camp of Roma Italian Sinti.
In Naples, surveillance cameras were also present in the camps visited by the Coalition.
e Coalition questions the intention of the placement of surveillance cameras in Romani
camps as well as whether such security systems are in place in regular areas of state-financed
social housing for non-Roma in Italy.
During discussions about the situation of Roma living in Naples’ formal Centro Lima
Camp, Coalition members noted that the 120 Romanian Romani inhabitants were treated
as though they were living in a prison rather than in a state-provided living area. e camp’s
Superintendent refused Coalition members entrance to the camp because they did not have
formal permission from the “Civil Protection”. Aside from requiring formal permission to host
visitors in their homes, Roma living in the camp are required to surrender their passports to the
Camp’s Superintendent while they live there. In addition, the camp closes at 9:00 PM, after
which time no one, including the residents, is allowed to either enter or leave the camp.
52 Coalition interview with Ms Hasima, a Romani woman from Serbia. Milan, 25 May 2008.