The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights said Thursday he had ''serious concerns'' about discrimination and xenophobia in Italy in his second report on the country in less than a year.
Thomas Hammarberg conceded that ''efforts have been undertaken'' to improve the situation, but said concerns remained over ''the situation of Roma, migration policy and practice, and the non-respect of binding interim measures requested by the European Court of Human Rights''.
The commissioner said he was worried about the ''appropriateness'' of the census of Roma and Sinti (gypsy) settlements in Italy and called for plans for alternative housing and education for children to be stepped up.
''There is a persistent climate of intolerance against them and their living conditions are still unacceptable in a number of settlements that I visited. Local good practices exist in the country, and they should be broadened.''
Hammarberg also hit out at a draft crime bill that would allow medical personnel to report illegal immigrants who access the health system to the police.
''This is profoundly unjust and could further marginalise migrants,'' he said.
In addition, the commissioner expressed concerns over the repatriation to Tunisia ''on security-related grounds'' of people who ''seriously risk torture in that country''.
''Italy has ignored binding interim measures requested by the European Court of Human Rights to halt deportations, thus seriously jeopardising the effectiveness of the European system of human rights protection''.
He also hit out at a general ''tendency towards racism and xenophobia'' that has led to ''extremely violent incidents'' against immigrants and Italian citizens of foreign origin.
However, Hammarberg praised Italy for adopting intercultural education programmes, developing a national programme on unaccompanied foreign minors and deciding to ratify the Council of Europe's Convention on action against human trafficking.
GOVERNMENT HITS BACK.
Former Foreign Undersecretary Margherita Boniver of Premier Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party hit out at Hammarberg's comments for being uninformed.
''Italy being rapped by the Council of Europe over insufficient progress in the fight against racism means one thing only: a lack of real-time information'' said Boniver, who founded the Italian branch of Amnesty International.
The ''hateful'' episodes of xenophobic violence, she added, were ''fortunately for everyone statistically insignificant and above all have been strongly condemned by all political forces''.
But the Italian branch of Amnesty International said Hammarberg's report ''deserved attentive consideration'' from the government.
In an official reply to a draft of the report issued in March, Italy's inter-ministerial committee on human rights said Italy had already taken or was in the process of taking all the necessary steps to strengthen the fight against racism and intolerance.
The committee underlined the work of the National Anti-Racial Discrimination Office (UNAR), which ''is tasked with investigating acts or expressions accused of having a racist aspect''.
It also said that a series of measures had meanwhile been taken to improve the situation of the Roma and Sinti and that the interior ministry had set up a 100-million-euro fund for this purpose.
In response to criticism over repatriating individuals for security reasons to countries where they risk torture, the committee said Italy remained committed to EU guidelines on human rights protection.
But it said ''balancing'' international obligations and national security ''remains the toughest task''.
