ITALY: FOREIGN WORKERS INCLUDING EU NATIONALS REQUIRED TO GIVE FINGERPRINTS ON RENEWAL OF WORK PERMITS UNDER PASSING OF CONTROVERSIAL BOSSI-FINI LAW

Record ID: 647838

  • Title: ITALY: FOREIGN WORKERS INCLUDING EU NATIONALS REQUIRED TO GIVE FINGERPRINTS ON RENEWAL OF WORK PERMITS UNDER PASSING OF CONTROVERSIAL BOSSI-FINI LAW
  • Date: 17th September 2002
  • Summary: (EU) ROME, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 18, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. PAN FROM FRONT DOOR OF ROMAN DISTRICT POLICE STATION TO ITALIAN AND EUROPEAN FLAGS FLYING ABOVE THE DOOR 0.10 2. CU: SIGN READING (Italian) ROME DISTRICT POLICE STATION 0.15 3. SV: WORKER IN ITALY FROM CAPO VERDE, MACIRA, GOING INTO ROOM TO HAVE FINGERPRINTS TAKEN 0.23 4. CLOSE UP OF WORKER FROM CAPO VERDE, MACIRA 0.26 5. SV/CU'S: POLICEWOMAN RUBBING ROLLER IN INK TO RUB OVER FINGERTIPS (2 SHOTS) 0.41 6. SV OF PRINTS BEING TAKEN 0.52 7. CLOSE OF FINGERS BEING RUBBED WITH INK 1.01 8. SV/SCU: PRINT OF ENTIRE HAND BEING INKED AND TAKEN BY POLICEWOMAN (2 SHOTS) 1.25 9. SV/SCU: MACIRA GOING TO THE BATHROOM TO WASH HER HANDS (2 SHOTS) 1.35 10. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (French) WORKER IN ITALY FROM CAPO VERDE,MACIRA, SAYING: "I think this is very very unnecessary to do this." 1.44 11. SCU: MACIRA WASHING HER HANDS OFF THE INK 1.49 12. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (French) MACIRA, SAYING: "I feel like a prisoner." 1.56 13. WIDE OF THE ITALIAN PARLIAMENT 2.03 14. VARIOUS OF MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND MEMBER OF ITALIAN NATIONALIST PARTY LEGA NORD IN HIS OFFICE (3 SHOTS) 2.19 15. SV: (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF ITALY'S NATIONALIST LEGA NORD PARTY, FRANCESCO SPERONI, SAYING: "Fingerprinting is just a method to make sure of someones identity. We've expressly asked for it for non-EU citizens because they often arrive without documents, they give different names and so on. This is a way for us to know for sure that Ahmed is Ahmed and Mohammed is Mohammed." 2.45 16. SV/SCU: SWEDISH NATIONAL KARIN ANDERSSON COMING INTO THE POLICE STATION FOR FINGERPRINTING AS SHE RENEWS HER PERMIT TO STAY IN ITALY (2 SHOTS) 3.09 (EU) ROME, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 17, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 17. VARIOUS OF POLICE CENTRE WHERE RESULTS FOR THE FINGERPRINTING ARE COMPUTERISED AND COLLATED TO MATCH THEM LATER (3 SHOTS) 3.34 18. SV: HEAD OF THE CENTRO PER I RIFUGIATI (REFUGEE COUNCIL, OR CIR) CHRISTOPHER HEIN TALKING TO COLLEAGUE IN CORRIDOR 3.40 19. CU: PHOTOGRAPH OF CHILD ON WALL 3.44 20. SV: (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRO PER I RIFUGIATI (CENTRE FOR REFUGEES, OR CIR) IN ROME, CHRISTOPHER HEIN, SAYING: "There is a move within the parliamentarian majority and within the government to adopt, by decree, a kind of amendment to the law which makes it obligatory also for Italian citizens to have fingerprints taken in the moment of the request of the ID card. If this is so, if this comes through, I would not be so worried anymore. It would no longer be discrimination." 4.18 (EU) OFF SICILY, ITALY (FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 21. LV: SHIP COMING INTO PORT 3.24 22. WIDE OF SHIP WITH IMMIGRANTS 4.28 23. CLOSE UP OF IMMIGRANTS FACES (3 SHOTS) 4.39 24. PAN: OF SHIP WITH IMMIGRANTS 4.46 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 2nd October 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ROME, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVACM5RZOVJK7SXH60K1CFN1CULA
  • Story Text: In the first week of enforcement of Italy's controversial
    Bossi-Fini law, foreign workers, including EU
    nationals, face being fingerprinted at Italian police
    stations.


    With the passing of Italy's controversial Bossi-Fini
    law last week both non-European Union (EU) and EU nationals
    working in Italy are required to give fingerprints on the
    renewal of any work permits.

    Legal immigrants are concerned that the new law, which
    introduces mandatory fingerprinting for all foreign workers,
    is a curb on their civil liberties.

    "I think it is very unnecessary to do this. I feel like a
    prisoner," said Macira a migrant worker from Capo Verde giving
    her fingerprints at a district police staion in Rome on
    Wednesday (September 18).

    "Fingerprinting is just a method to make sure of someone's
    identity. Weve expressly asked for it for non-EU citizens
    because they often arrive without documents, they give
    different names and so on. This is a way for us to know for
    sure that Ahmed is Ahmed and Mohammed is Mohammed," said
    Member of the European Parliament and representative of
    Lega Nord the Italian nationalist party, Francesco Speroni.

    Some at the police station were happy for the
    fingerprinting to go ahead and thought little of the human
    rights aspect of the law, it appears to be just another
    formality needed to keep working in Italy.

    Following the fingerprinting the information is collated
    on computer and put into a police database.

    The new law was enacted on September 10. Leaving the
    Italian opposition and some groups who work with refugees
    frustrated.

    "There is a move within the parliamentarian majority and
    within the government to adopt, by decree, a kind of amendment
    to the law which makes it obligatory also for Italian citizens
    to have fingerprints taken in the moment of the request of the
    ID card. If this is so, if this comes through, I would not be
    so worried anymore. It would no longer be discrimination,"
    said Christopher Hein who works with refugees in Rome.

    Other provisions in the new law include giving the Navy
    extra powers to patrol Italy's shores and to board boats
    suspected of carrying illegal immigrants.

    There are tough fines and jail sentences for any Italians
    found harbouring or providing work for illegal migrants, and
    measures to speed up the expulsion of paperless foreigners.

    Human rights groups and the United Nations High
    Commissioner for Refugees have complained that the new law is
    too harsh and offers insufficient provision for valid asylum
    seekers.

    Italy's Northern League leader Umberto Bossi said last
    Sunday (September 15) that the deaths of 15 Liberians off the
    Sicilian coast showed just how important it was to enforce the
    new law, preventing such accidents from happening by keeping
    illegal migrants at bay.

    The opposition said the incident highlighted just how much
    the government had underestimated and misunderstood the
    problem.

    Big business has also complained that Bossi-Fini law is
    excessive, with companies now struggling to find workers
    willing to do manual or semi-skilled jobs.

    The debate in Italy looks set to continue with European
    Union legislation to be enacted in April 2004 possibly
    overriding the Bossi-Fini law.

    But with ships carrying immigrants into Italy almost daily
    the government is looking at what some class as extreme
    measures to stem the flow.


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