Rome Riot Police to Prevent Attacks on Refugees

Riot police moved in Thursday to prevent residents of a neighborhood on Rome’s outskirts from attacking refugees living at a holding center in the latest incident of anti-immigrant tensions rocking Italy.

The working-class neighborhood of Tor Sapienza has seen several days and nights of violence against refugees by residents who blame foreigners for crimes. The residents say they’re not racist, but are fed up with what they say are years of neglect by government authorities who have allowed gypsies, migrants and asylum-seekers to settle in Rome’s peripheries without providing adequate services.

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Officials at the “Smile” center said unaccompanied minors living there–most aged 16 and 17 from Egypt and Bangladesh–were being moved to another center in Rome for their own security after another small clash broke out Thursday.

“We are scared. We are trying to find a compromise with the residents,” said Francesca Amato, an official who works at the center.

Italian commentators say at least some of the perpetrators are believed to be members of far-right groups–there have been chants of “Il Duce” in a reference to Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

{snip} Earlier this month Italy partially handed over its sea rescue operation to the European Union after coming under pressure domestically to end the costly operation.