Europe Unicef among critics of Italian plan to fingerprint Roma children

23 Jun 2008 |

• The Italian government’s plan to fingerprint Gypsy children was condemned as a discriminatory “ethnic headcount” that insulted the country’s Roma population. According to ‘The Guardian’, Vincenzo Spadafora, head of Unicef in Italy, said he was “seriously concerned”, adding that the government would be acting in a discriminatory fashion “unless it fingerprinted every child in Italy” . Meanwhile, the former president of Italy’s Union of Jewish Communities, recalled how Jews, Roma and other minorities were targeted during Italy’s years of fascism, he accused the country of having “lost its memory”.

Source : The Guardian