Few foreigners expelled in Italy outcry

Leading Italian politicians responded swiftly and vehemently after a Romanian Gypsy allegedly murdered a navy officer's wife: They announced 20,000 foreigners would be expelled from Rome alone.

But so far just 210 foreigners have been ordered deported from all of Italy under an emergency decree approved Nov. 1.

Across the spectrum, politicians sought to calm public outrage over Giovanna Reggiani's murder with bold deportation proclamations that prompted critics to charge Italy with conducting a witchhunt against foreigners.

Conservative opposition leader Gianfranco Fini has been one of the more strident voices in favor of mass expulsions. But the call has also been taken up by Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, the center-left's choice to succeed Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

Many Italians have been alarmed over a perceived influx of Romanians since the poor eastern European nation entered the European Union last Jan. 1, giving its citizens legal entry to Italy.

Romanians have long come to Italy to look for work, largely because they speak a Romance language similar to Italian. A minority are Gypsies living in ramshackle camps around major cities, and Europeans' age-old suspicion of them has spread to all the Romanian immigrants.

During the uproar, Veltroni said 75 percent of all arrests in Rome last year involved Romanians. That was an exaggeration: His office later said Romanians comprised half of foreigners arrested in the capital in the first five months of this year.

While politicians grabbed the spotlight with promises of kicking out migrants and ridding Italian cities of street crime, Interior Minister Giuliano Amato and other government officials are more restrained.

Amato met Wednesday with law officials carrying out deportations and emphasized that mass expulsions would violate European norms, the Interior Ministry said. Amato noted the emergency expulsion measure had already had a deterrent effect, with "numerous voluntary repatriations and less influx" by foreigners.

The deportation plan's legality drew immediate questions across Europe, but EU officials said statutes give Italy the right to declare emergency measures to remove citizens of other EU countries deemed a threat to public safety.

The emergency decree does not carry specific criteria on what makes a foreigner a threat, leaving it up to local police to make that determination.

Amato, the interior minister, has urged "targeted expulsions" to avoid abuses, and most of those rounded up have been repeat and violent offenders.

Of the 210 ordered expulsions, 90 percent have been Romanian citizens, according to Interior Ministry figures released Tuesday. Most already left the country, but about 30 were being held in temporary centers pending deportation.

Rather than restore public confidence, the deportation decree has fanned ethnic tensions. Gypsy camps have been razed and Romanians have been beaten on the streets.

"The situation for Romanians is very tense. Some are afraid to go out on the streets or to work," said the president of Italy's Romanian association, Eugen Terteleac. He said some are considering returning to Romania for good.

Romanians comprise one of Italy's largest ethnic groups, with 560,000 registered officially, or about 1 percent of the population.

Terteleac's association says the actual number is closer to 1.5 million, not including Romanian Gypsies. That takes into account those who entered the country illegally, working off the books as caretakers, house cleaners and janitors.

The Romanian immigrants are generally highly educated. Nearly two-thirds hold a high school or college, double the rate for Italians, according to the Roman Catholic charity Caritas.

Terteleac dismissed the idea there has been an influx of Romanians since their country joined the EU, saying their numbers in Italy have remained steady.

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Associated Press writer Marta Falconi in Rome contributed to this report.