Rome mourns Roma children burned to death

The case of the four Roma children who died on Sunday night in a fire in a squatters’
camp in Rome has aroused a debate on the integration of nomads and the ‘emergency’
measures adopted so far by the government.

‘The incident in Rome shows that the integration of Roma citizens must be a top priority
on the political agenda’, the CE official stated.

According to Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno, the procedures he started, which would
have prevented the tragical event, have been slowed down by bureaucracy.

In addition to special powers, Alemanno also requests the Government the amount of 30
million euros in order to put into practice the ‘Piano Nomadi’ (the Nomad Plan), all these
measures being aimed at shutting down the illegal sites in Rome.

The opposition parties accuse that the regime led by Mayor Alemanno failed at solving
the gipsy problem, accentuating that Alemanno ‘has been entitled to these special powers
since 2008’.

Italy issued a state of emergency over nomads for almost three years

Starting May 2008, the emergency state generated by the influx of nomads has been
renewed every year on a regular basis and extended to five Italian regions. The last
emergency state has been issued in December 2010 and it will last till December 2011.

In the last few years, extraordinary commissioners have been given multiple authority
which allowed them to effectuate a census of the Roma population in their regions,
whether they were Italian citizens or not.

After having discussed with the parents of the deceased children, Italian head of state
Giorgio Napolitano declared that the question of nomads represents ‘a tragedy which
affects us all’ and requested gipsy families to be moved to ‘safer locations’.

On the other side, there will be opened a criminal case against the parents, where they
will be accused of parental neglect and abandonment.

The children, aged from four to eleven, have been left alone while they were sleeping in
their shack in a squatters’ camp in Rome.

Translated by: Mihaela Grigoraş
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University