Italian minister's plan sparks outrage
Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini yesterday 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 yesterday, the anti-immigrant Salvini sought to clarify his plans.
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