The Italian parliament on Thursday approved a measure requiring doctors to report illegal immigrants, unleashing a barrage of criticism.
The measure, which would lift confidentiality provisions for illegals who need hospital care, was contained in a crime bill passed by the Senate to the Chamber of Deputies.
The Italian association of hospital doctors has criticised the measure and said its members will not act as ''spies''.
The opposition described the measure, which was put into the bill by the regionalist Northern League, as ''racist'' and ''fascist''.
The Italian branch of Doctors Without Borders warned it could keep illegal immigrants away from hospitals with health risks for society.
It appealed to the lower house to stave off ''the dangerous healthcare marginalisation of a swathe of the foreign population''.
The largest opposition party, the Democratic Party (PD), led the criticism in parliament.
Democratic Party (PD) Senate whip Anna Finocchiaro said the measure would ''spread fear among people who will no longer go to hospital to give birth or seek treatment for their children, or will hide diseases even if they are contagious''.
''You have crossed the line from law-making to persecution,'' she told the government, arguing that the measure would fuel racism.
Finocchiaro also noted that the government was defeated three times on the bill Wednesday despite its overwhelming majority, an alleged indication that many in the ruling parties thought the measure went too far.
EXTREME RIGHT SLAMS MEASURE TOO.
Italy's only black MP, Congo-born Jean-Leonard Touadi, also in the PD, called the measure ''a return to fascist-era snooping'' and said many illegals would choose death over expulsion.
''I therefore ask my colleagues in the majority: where are the Christian values whose flag they have wrapped themselves in? Where is the right to life, bandied around so much at the moment,'' he said, referring to a landmark right-to-die ruling the government and the Catholic Church is fighting against.
The hard-left Communist Refoundation party called the measure ''clearly neo-Nazi and, most of all, stupid,'' while the extreme-right New Force party said it was ''spine-chilling''.
''It's not by forcing doctors to betray their Hippocratic oath that you're going to combat immigration,'' said New Force official Paolo Caratossidis, stressing that ''everyone has the right to medical treatment''.
The measure was also condemned by leftwing union CGIL which said it ''shows the cultural, political and ethical degradation of the majority''.
CGIL said its medical chapters would look at ''all necessary means'' to stop the measure being applied.
The leader of the small leftwing Democratic Left party, EuroMP Claudio Fava, linked the doctors' measure to other parts of the crime bill including the registration of street people and the approval of citizen's crimewatch patrols.
''With this bill, (Premier Silvio) Berlusconi's Italy has effectively moved beyond the bounds of the European Union,'' he said, announcing an appeal to Brussels to open a formal procedure against the government's ''manifest xenophobia...like (late rightwing leader Georg) Haider's Austria''.
'ITALIANS RIGHTS COME FIRST'.
The government insists the measure is needed to help crack down on illegal immigration, which has risen steadily in recent years and has been linked to high-profile crimes.
The Senate whip for Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, Maurizio Gasparri, rejected suggestions that the crime bill was largely the work of the Northern League, saying: ''the bill is backed by the entire majority because we are convinced that the rights of Italians must take first place''.
Arguing that the bill would help combat people trafficking, he said: ''There is no racism here. There was racism by progressive mayors who allowed shanty towns to spread, where babies die at night because of fires''.
The Northern League hailed the vote as ''a victory for our militants'' and pooh-poohed the opposition's strictures.
''You are with the foreigners, you defend foreigners and you're against Italians,'' said League Senate whip Federico Bricolo, answering shouts of ''xenophobia'' from the opposition benches.
''You can call us xenophobic all you like, it only wins us more votes''.
Before passing into law, the bill must be approved by the lower house.
