Italy's Romanians Fearful After MP's Crime Claim

Romanians living in Italy said they fear another wave of xenophobia after the deputy head of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Luigi di Maio, a member of the Eurosceptic Five Star Movement, claimed in a Facebook post that "Italy has imported 40% of Romania's criminals".

Di Maio blamed the failures of the Italian justice system for attracting wrongdoers from abroad, especially Romania, while the Balkan country attracts Italian companies who invest in a system where justice works.

The message sparked intense controversy in Italy, home to over a million Romanians, where the community has been targeted by hate crimes in the past.

The peak of the xenophobia against Romanians was in 2008, after a Romanian, Romulus Mailat, was convicted of raping and killing Giovanna Reggiani, wife of an Italian admiral.

The Italian Interior Ministry expelled many Romanians under an anti-immigration decree following the murder.

Di Maio's statement was based on figures presented by Italian deputy attorney general in Mesina, Sebastiano Ardita, but Italian national press agency ANSA fact-checked the statements and found that in 2016, the highest number of foreigners in Italian prisons were from Morocco, not Romania.

The Romanian ambassador to Rome, George Gabriel Bologan, criticised Di Maio's assertions in a letter to Italian daily newspaper La Stampa.

"Many of my honest citizens are on construction sites, their employers appreciate them and want to continue collaborating with them; others are assisting and helping alone and immobilized people; others, doctors and nurses bring hope and smiles to the ills and others, engineers, professors, researchers, students, artists contribute to the development of a country they've chosen for its...