By John Phillips
ROME
Violent anti-immigrant protests by xenophobic local residents rocked a suburb on the east side of Rome on Friday.
Tension remained high in the tough Roman suburb of Tor Sapienza Friday after authorities evacuated scores of people from the "Il Sorriso" migrant reception center through an angry crowd screaming "we want you gone."
Fourteen of the 3
6 under-age refugees who were transferred out of the center returned there briefly Friday, saying they wanted to continue their classes, but were forced to leave by the anti-immigrant rioting.
Local people claim the refugee centre must close as, from the very first moment of its installation, it created problems and a sense of general insecurity among the residents.
The Mayor of Rome Ignazio Marino, already deeply unpopular over his failure to pay a series of traffic fines, was greeted with cries of "buffone" (clown), when he visited the area in an attempt to cool the situation.
The clashes first erupted on Tuesday night when an organized group of some 50 people attacked the refugee centre with homemade bombs and fought street battles with the police who were protecting the centre. Waste bins were set afire and three police cars were attacked. Police retaliated by firing tear gas.
"The “attack was not incited by racism but by desperation. We are tired of the ongoing situation of violence and terror," Ippoliti said, "We are not extremists, but we want to be safe in our own neighbourhood and the authorities are ignoring our complaints.”
In Tor Sapienza, lack of services, non-existent street lighting, and a spiking crime rate including a number of attacks on women after dark have inflamed public sentiment against the local Albanian, Romanian, and Roma populations..
But the refugees - who fled war and poverty in North Africa and the Middle East, were scooped off unseaworthy boats by Italy's now-defunct Mare Nostrum migrant search-and-rescue mission, and were placed at the center- have born the brunt of popular hatred and xenophobia.
www.aa.com.tr/en
