ROME: Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Tuesday defended his plans to count the Roma community living in the country and deport those without legal status, despite outrage at home and abroad.

“I’m not giving up and I’m pushing ahead! The Italians and their safety first,” Salvini tweeted, after opposition MPs slammed the idea of a census as “racist” and “fascist.” Salvini — already under fire when he refused last week to let a rescue ship carrying 630 migrants land in Italy — had floated the plan on national television on Monday.

A census would allow the authorities to “see who, how (they live) and how many there are,” he argued.

It would then allow the authorities to study the possibility of expelling Roma of foreign nationality without the proper documentation, he said.

But confronted with widespread anger on Tuesday, the anti-immigrant Salvini sought to clarify his plans.

“It is not our intention to record or take anyone’s fingerprints,” he said, according to a statement from his far-right League party.

“Our goal is a recognition of the situation of Roma camps. We intend to protect thousands of children who are not allowed to attend school regularly.”

But condemnation of his proposals was rapid and widespread, with not only the opposition parties but also members of the newly-established ruling coalition adding their voices. The European Union also weig­hed into the controversy.

EU Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein told journalists that “as a general rule, we cannot deport a European citizen based on ethnic criteria”.

Deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio — leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement that makes up the coalition alongside Salvini’s League — said any census based on ethnicity would be “unconstitutional”.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2018