Recent anti-immigrant violence
in low-income areas of the capital is not to be "dismissed
merely as racism", Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso said Thursday.
"This would be a major error of evaluation: I believe those
protests are a request for help and for attention," Grasso said.
In mid-November city authorities were forced to transfer 36
underage refugees out of a reception center in Tor Sapienza, a
working-class neighborhood in east Rome whose residents have
long complained of poor services, ill-lit streets, and a rising
crime rate, including several attacks on women.
The move became necessary after local residents threw
bottles and stones at the centre, sparking the refugees'
response.
"The unrest in Tor Sapienza has forced us to ask questions
that still remain unanswered," Grasso said.
"The problems facing these neighbourhoods are the same as
those facing the country: unemployment, insecurity, school
abandonment, absence of services," he added.
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