Migrants Violent, Should Pay To Enter Italy-Minister

ROME — Immigrants are naturally violent and should pay a bond to enter Italy, an Italian minister has said, in comments which could add to a lynching atmosphere that has gripped the north after two Albanians killed a barman.

Gangs described by police as skinheads and right-wing soccer fans injured two immigrants and smashed shop windows in retaliation this week after the barman was stabbed in a fight on Sunday night in the northern region of Varese.

“You can’t add a high number of immigrants, like is currently happening, to a social fabric like ours. Albanians and other races have shown a higher tendency towards violence and aggression,” Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli told Corriere della Sera daily in an interview published on Wednesday.

“The rage reaches such a point it starts a series of reactions,” said Calderoli, of the populist Northern League.

“It’s not the right response and we don’t encourage it but in cases like this, the idea of taking care of things yourself occurs. The time will come when people will react forcefully.”

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Calderoli, whose Northern League party has used anti-illegal immigrant sentiment and far-fetched proposals to garner voter support in its stronghold in the north, said he might have the solution.

“I am thinking of proposing an obligatory bond for every immigrant to obtain an entry visa into Italy,” he said, without elaborating.

“The bond, whose value is yet to be determined, would be returned at the moment each immigrant returns to his country.”

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