The immigration debate in Italy has flared again following the stabbing and killing of a 19-year-old Egyptian youth, Azizi El Saled, in a poor area of Milan late on Saturday. The attack occurred following an argument on a bus and youths from Ecuador and Peru are now in custody.
About 100 North Africans, many of them Egyptians, rioted in the area after the attack, overturning cars and vandalising shops belonging to South Americans. Milan’s Deputy Mayor, Riccardo De Corato, compared the area to the Wild West.
Northern League MEP Matteo Salvini said that police should now go from house to house in search of illegal immigrants whilst Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa called for rigorous action against them. Illegal immigration is already a crime in Italy under last year’s Immigration Law reforms, as is aiding and abetting illegal immigrants.
Anna Finocchiaro, the Democratic Party’s Senate Leader, has said that fighting illegal immigration with propaganda will be counter-productive, whilst the Leader of the Northern League, Umberto Bossi, has said that round-ups are not the answer. He added, though, that “mountains” of immigrants had arrived in Italy in the past few years.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni has tried to calm the waters, saying that illegal immigrants will be deported without turning Italy into a police state. He added that the country now has to deal with the social problems of having accepted a large number of legal immigrants. He said that large concentrations of immigrants in single areas should be avoided and that Italy must work to help legal immigrants to integrate.
Meanwhile, Mr Berlusconi caused outrage earlier on Saturday when he told the Albanian Prime Minister that Italy would “make exceptions for pretty girls” wishing to settle in the country.
