When we talk about security, we must discuss the statistics. The type and number of crimes, as well as who committed them is well documented.
The increase in certain types of crime is closely linked to illegal immigration or the uncontrolled immigration of citizens from new member states. Paradoxically, the latter group has proved to be extremely dangerous. In the three-year period from 2004 to 2006, the top foreign nation in terms of the number of cases of voluntary homicide, sexual assault, vehicle theft, domestic burglary, armed robbery, robberies in businesses and extortion, was Romania.
With effect from 01 January 2007, Romania became a member State and that Country’s citizens have been free to enter Italy, with no automatic expulsion, this thanks to a decision made by the Italian authorities, not the European ones. In fact, many other Countries have placed a moratorium on these entries, valid for a few years, precisely because they were afraid of the consequences.
Austria and Germany have introduced a moratorium that will remain in effect for at least three years. Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxemburg and Holland are to lift entry restrictions gradually over a period of three years. In conclusion, on 24 October this year, Great Britain announced that they would only be allowing the entry of a small number of Romanian and Bulgarian non-specialised experts in the agricultural and industrial sectors, up to a maximum of 20,000. Italy, together with Finland, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, has not applied any form of moratorium.
Compared to its counterparts, Italy has an additional problem in that, in this country, we never apply penalties and our level of tolerance with regard to phenomena such as the Gypsy squatter camps that have mushroomed around our major cities would be unthinkable in Sweden or in Finland.
So, what happened as from the 1st January 2007? Romania did not enter into Europe, but only into certain European Countries, mainly Italy, which is the European Union’s soft underbelly as regards the application of the penalties and is, therefore, an irresistible attraction for anyone that chooses to get involved in criminal activities.
Let’s take a simple example. Try to imagine what would happen, had the squatter camps that have invaded the Tiber River in Rome instead been built on the shores of the Thames, in London. They would not have lasted for more than half an hour. The increase in criminal activities carried out by Romanian citizens has been one of the more obvious consequences. As at 30/6/2007, Italian prisons held 43,957 people, of which 15,658 were foreigners and, more specifically, 2,267 were Romanians, the second largest group after the Moroccans, which numbered 3,326 people.
In order to safeguard the honest Romanians, of which there are many it must be said, and the Italians in our country, it is essential to introduce a moratorium, in order to allow us to decide who may enter and who must stay out, on the basis of the same criteria used by any democratic nation in the world, namely employment, residence and criminal record.
The “Italia dei Valori” Party will continue to fight to the bitter end for the introduction of a moratorium that nobody wants at present, not even the centre-right, and for this moratorium to be extended to include all the new Countries that will be joining the Schengen block in 2008.