ROME: An attempt by an Italian mayor to create a separate bus route for Roma people sparked outrage among politicians on Saturday, who compared the move to apartheid-era South Africa’s segregation policies.

Claudio Gambino, the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) mayor of Borgaro Torinese, said this week he wants separate buses because Roma people who live in a camp of around 600 inhabitants on the outskirts of the northern Italian town “have been afflicting us for over 20 years”.

“To guarantee the security of our citizens we need two buses. One for citizens, the other for Roma people,” he was quoted as saying by Italian media on Friday, adding that buses were plagued by theft and petty violence.Town councillor Luigi Spinelli of the Left, Ecology and Freedom party (SEL) has supported the motion — to the disgust of his party’s leader Nichi Vendola, who told La Stampa daily on Saturday that giving people different rights is called ‘apartheid’.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2014