The Italian Solution

Silvio Berlusconi has been a busy man of late. Aside from hosting the recent G8 summit - and trying to hose down yet more revelations about his personal indiscretions - he's also ushered in a tough new immigration policy. For years we've seen thousands of North African boat people risking their lives to land in Italy, just part of the country's estimated 1 million illegal immigrants. As Amos Roberts reports, the 'Italian Solution' to this complex problem is creating international controversy.

The hunt is on. A group of Italian citizens patrol a neighbourhood in the city of Turin.

MARIO BORGHEZIO, NORTHERN LEAGUE (Translation): The main problem is with the North African immigrants, and also some South American groups.

MARIO BORGHEZIO (Translation): They're very violent, very arrogant, and with the North Africans, there's a problem with infiltration by Islamic fundamentalists and a proliferation of mosques.

This is not some fringe group - everyone here belongs to the Northern League, which is part of the Italian government. And patrols like this are now permitted under new laws designed to improve security by cracking down on immigrants.

This story is about the Italy that tourists rarely get to see. If you want to know about the glories of Italy's past, visit its old churches. But if you want to find out about its future you'd do better to come here - the Mount Olive Miracle Ministry outside of Naples. There's nothing at all Catholic about this church service. But most of the West Africans in the congregation speak fluent Italian - some have even married Italians - and all have worked hard to establish themselves here.

MAN IN CHURCH: Italians, they will tell you they want immigrants by mouth. But in their hearts they don't want immigrants because they normally make things difficult for the immigrants.

WOMAN 1: It's very hard, this place, for we to live here. Because the Italian people want us to leave, they don't want us to stay here.

In the past, Italy has tolerated, even encouraged immigration, but times have definitely changed. The island of Lampedusa has been the first stop for many of Italy's African immigrants. Every summer, as tourists tanned themselves on nearby beaches, boats would arrive full of desperate, dehydrated migrants. Closer to Africa than mainland Italy, Lampedusa has been dubbed "the gateway to Europe". Last year, 36,000 people arrived. Nobody knows how many drowned. My driver, Emanuele, takes me to see the island's strange new tourist attraction.

EMANUELE (Translation): We're going to see the boat graveyard. Like that one... On a boat like this, for instance, there are 200 or 300 people.

This is where all the boats from Africa are dumped along with the possessions people had on board.

Those who survive the journey are brought here - Lampedusa's immigrant reception centre.

PAOLA SILINA, DEPUTY DIRECTOR (Translation): Women and minors are put up in this building, men are housed over here behind the gate.

Deputy Director Paola Silvina says the centre is supposed to hold up to 800 people, but at the beginning of the year there were almost 2,000 migrants here. Now, the immigration centre is completely deserted.

PAOLA SILINA (Translation): Nobody's arrived. No-one's arrived here for days, I don't know why.

Silvina does know, but she's not authorised to tell me. The Italian government has managed to close the gateway to Europe thanks to a controversial deal with its new best friend in the region. Amid much pomp, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi visited Italy last month to sign trade and cooperation agreements worth billions of euros. Libya is now doing its best to prevent migrants from leaving. And Italy's actually pushing back boats intercepted in international waters, returning almost 300 migrants to Libya so far.

SILVIO BERLUSCONI, ITALIAN PM (Translation): So I repeat, I'm happy with this situation, this agreement, this collaboration...

The United Nations, human rights groups and the Vatican have all condemned the deal.

LAURA BOLDRINI, UNHCR: This new policy doesn't consider that on board these boats you frequently have asylum seekers and refugees. In fact, if you see last year numbers, it is clear that 75% of those who landed on the Italian coast, through Libya, applied for asylum. And it is also clear that 50% received from the Italian authorities a form of protection.

The UNHCR says African asylum seekers are now being returned to a country with a reputation for routine human rights abuses. But Gaddafi stunned many in his audience when he declared Africa had no political refugees to worry about.

MUAMMAR GADDAFI, LIBIAN LEADER (Translation): As for political asylum, Africans have no problems with politics, none at all. That's one of the tricks and lies you hear. They say, "We're here for political asylum". Africans don't have this problem. These are people who live in the jungle, in the deserts. They know nothing about parties, election or opposition. Political asylum? How many have political asylum? Millions? Millions pour into Europe. Do they all want political asylum? It's hilarious.

REPORTER: What do the people here in Lampedusa think about this new policy of sending people back to Libya?

EMANUELE (Translation): We feel bad because, if they send them back, who knows what will happen to those poor devils, what they'll do to them.

The northern city of Turin is at the opposite end of the country from Lampedusa - many migrants travel here looking for work. Several hundred have occupied this abandoned hospital and they're proof that at least some of those coming from Libya are genuine asylum seekers.

REPORTER: Just 10 days? All these men arrived in Lampedusa, all applied for asylum, and all received some form of protection from the Italian government.

This man is from Sudan. He says he used to be an English professor and the spokesperson for a rebel group.

MAN: I read a lot about Italy and I'm really fascinated, fascinated about Italy, and also I'm fond of going to Italy. Normally, not through illegal way by a crazy boat.

MAN: I think it is another way of suffering in a way. It is another suffering - according - which is obviously seen here.

These men have been given protection, but they've also been left to fend for themselves. The building is run down and overcrowded and many of the refugees say that although they're safe here, living conditions in Africa were better.

MAN 2: This life is just like a dog life, or a monkey life, it's not a real life.

MAN 2: Yeah, I sure. Whole the room we sleep nearly 35 persons. Like the hospital. Like hospital. Tea and water. This - no cup.

MAN: Yeah, this is the toilet. In Italy, we are in jail. Not covered over, not covered over.

In recent years cities like Turin have been transformed by immigration. A lot of drug trafficking and other crime gets blamed on the new arrivals and some politicians are capitalising on people's fear of the foreigners. Mario Borghezio is a member of the European Parliament for the Northern League, an anti-immigrant party that's done well in recent elections. He regularly leads citizens' patrols, or "ronde", in Turin.

MARIO BORGHEZIO (Translation): You've done well. You've chosen the right people - well organised.

He wants to expose social problems he says are caused by unauthorised immigrants who've turned to crime.

MARIO BORGHEZIO (Translation): There, I can see one over there. Go away, pushers! Go away, go away! Pushers, go away! This garden is for decent people, not for pushers! Go away.

MAN (Translation): We're the anti-drug patrol. Tonight we've decided to stop them.

MAN (Translation): We're giving the police a hand. So you no longer have to worry.

MARIO BORGHEZIO (Translation): But now we'll make our presence felt. Good evening.

MAN (Translation): This thing about hunting the blacks is a disgusting way of treating the people who live here. And not all the residents agree with it, with hunting the blacks. We should integrate those people, have a dialogue with them, not hunt them down like they do.

WOMAN (Translation): It's war. It's war. We don't want this. This is not a battleground. It's very sad.

MAN (Translation): We can't just throw them in the sea. They must be assimilated into society. One rule must be applied without exception - Italian must be spoken in the mosque. Otherwise it favours terrorism as we can't understand them and we know some of the men who hit the Twin Towers came from some mosques in Turin.

Patrols, or ronde, have also been organised elsewhere in northern Italy. Often they're connected with far-right groups and cross the line into vigilantism. Some people have been convicted of assault while out fighting crime and Borghezio has also been in trouble with the law.

REPORTER: I believe in the past, sir, you were convicted of setting fire to the possessions of some immigrants. Some people might say that you're part of the crime problem.

MARIO BORGHEZIO (Translation): I don't know where you got this information from, I've never heard it before. I'd like to know if your sources of information are humorous magazines or serious newspapers. Because the normal press read by normal people doesn't carry this information.

In 2005 Borghezio was found guilty of arson and fined 3,000 euros - clearly something he doesn't like to be reminded of.

MARIO BORGHEZIO (Translation): Are we going to lick the arse of the first d-----d who comes here asking provocative questions? You're lucky. You're lucky we're peaceful people.

The ronde are now set to gain official recognition thanks to controversial new laws. The laws have been driven by Interior Minister Roberto Maroni - another member of the Northern League who helped create the first ronde.

ROBERTO MARONI, INTERIO MINISTER (Translation): I'm very pleased, now let's move on to enforcing the new law.

LAURA BOLDRINI: Italians all believe that there is an invasion going on. Because in the last 10 years, day by day, night by night the only message which passed, it's like immigration, like a threat to security. So Italians today are very scared, and they're right to be scared, because what they heard was just negative things.

In Naples last year this fear drove Italians to attack foreigners living in their neighbourhood. In Ponticelli, a suburb of Naples, a 16-year-old gypsy girl from Romania was accused of attempting to kidnap this woman's baby. Many Italians believe that gypsies, or Roma, steal babies, and the story found a ready audience.

MOTHER (Translation): I urge the police and all the citizens to do something because they do whatever they like and we no longer count. So it feels like we should leave and they get to stay. No more Mr Nice Guy, we're fed up.

Police knew straightaway that reprisals were likely and, sure enough, the Roma community in Ponticelli bore the brunt of local anger. A few days after the incident, this Roma camp was set on fire. Luckily the residents had already fled.

Hate spilled over into violence again when yet another Roma camp in Ponticelli came under attack. Across Italy over the past year, Roma from Eastern Europe and other migrants from Africa and Asia have all been victims of vicious attacks. Human rights groups accuse Italy's right-wing government of inciting the violence. But the Foreign Minister says Italians are sick of seeing foreigners break the law, and don't need to be incited.

FRANCO FRATTINI, FOREIGN MINISTER: People that are poor, that are in a poor life condition, they vote for us, not for the left, because they feel protected. They feel safe, why? Because they meet criminals, they meet people that commit rapes in the streets, and that is not acceptable, so it is not matter of incitement, it is a matter of fact.

WOMAN (Translation): Last night they came by in cars and said they'd kill us, that we'd all die.

Roma aren't just being hunted by vigilante mobs. In some parts of Italy the police and even the army are on the warpath. It's early morning and on the outskirts of Rome soldiers and Carabinieri are raiding a small Roma camp. The families living here have already left for the day but not far away, two startled men are detained. It's strange to see the army used against the homeless. But today's operation is part of an aggressive campaign to combat social problems and crime blamed on the Roma.

The police say these men have violated hygiene and building rules and their immigration status needs to be verified, although, as EU citizens, they should be free to live and work in Italy.

ROMANIAN MAN (Translation): I've been here five months, and in these five months they've been here three times.

FRANCO FRATTINI: If people like this had been living in Romania they would have been treated very much more severely. And so the idea is that we have to combine the principle of hospitality with the principle of respect of law.

Government policy now favours the law over hospitality. This medical clinic outside of Naples is bracing itself for the impact of the new immigration laws. For the first time migrants without documents are considered criminals. Medecins Sans Frontieres, which runs this clinic, says doctors are now obliged to inform the authorities if their patients are here illegally. MSF is worried migrants will be less likely to seek medical help and says doctors will be forced to break the law.

MSF DOCTOR (Translation): I think it's a stupid law. That is my honest opinion. I think 90%, almost all of them, will take no notice of that law. They'll just treat people. They can't do otherwise. It's hard, it's almost impossible. It's impossible.

In an abandoned house outside of Naples, around 50 young men from North Africa wish they'd never come to Italy. There's no electricity or water, and the police have warned them the house could collapse.

ANTAR (Translation): We pray before we go to sleep in case we don't make it, in case we die. I honestly don't know.

Most of the men feel too humiliated by their living conditions to appear on camera but this 23-year-old Egyptian has something he wants to say.

ANTAR (Translation): Would you be happy to sleep like this, to live like this? Would you? I don't know what to do. Is this any life for a human being? An animal wouldn't want to sleep here.

When it starts to rain, water comes through the open windows, soaking the men's mattresses and clothes. In one important respect the men who live here and the government are now in complete agreement - coming to Italy was a mistake.

ANTAR (Translation): So my advice to young Arab men... Don't think of risking the crossing and all the rest. There's no point. Europe is not worth it any more. Our countries are a million times better than Europe.

Unfortunately, for migrants who've spent all their money coming here, there's no way back.

ANTAR (Translation): We're always humiliated, Arabs are humiliated everywhere. Wherever we go?

I spent time in that village of Ponticelli, and have lived in an Italian community in the U.S. The Italians are friendly and generous, but they don't take any crap. They have a lifestyle that enshrines beauty, even among the poorest -- everyone has a few flowers or a pot of basil; and they insist on respect and good manners. When they get fed up, watch out.

Here's a fairly typical southern Italian courtyard. Women in southern Italy always wear skirts and a little heel -- no pants or flat shoes except perhaps sandals. Not every courtyard is decorated this way with hanging pots -- that's truly unique -- but all have flowers or herbs somewhere. There are perhaps 8 to 12 residences opening onto this shared court, where laundry would be hung during the day (this is early evening). Sometimes all the women will come out as a group and make bread, dried tomatoes or tomato sauce in the courtyard.

That’s a beautiful picture! I dream of living in Italy one day. I’m researching becoming a citizen through my grandparents. It take a lot of paperwork and hoop-jumping, so I have to eat lotsa pasta to get up the energy to tackle it!

A wonderful idea, I think... muslims are targeting Italy. But it is a hard nut to crack. The communist party enjoyed a lot of play there until a few years ago, but they didn't manage to take over, either. Everything slides off. Italy is pretty much ungovernable by forces outside the cultural consensus, although many have tried. Not that Catholicism has a firm hold, either, except culturally and aesthetically. Aesthetics and beauty are the overriding spiritual quest of the Italian heart.

The thing that worries me, though, is that for the past 30 years, Italian families have stopped having lots of children. Post-socialist EU, it is not unusual for families to have the (even more) spoiled (than customary) only child, or no children at all. and for spoiled Italian men to stay home with mama in a long adolescence extending into their 30s and 40s. The Western birth control movement created the vacuum for muslim immigration into Europe, and Italy was no exception. So there may well be a social crisis there with caring for the elderly starting now, with the postwar boomers, and with a changing of the guard culturally as the old aunties die off. Do your research carefully.

If I were to move there, I would definitely prefer the southern regions. I once wanted to go so badly, and saw an inn with a vineyard for sale on Capri that blew me away; but I had too many ties here and wouldn't have been able to convince my spouse or move my family. So do it before you are too old. Being Catholic would also help. (I'm evangelical. But I speak Italian).

The thing that might still be viable is small-time food farming, since the soil is so amazing from its volcanic composition, and the sun is sub-tropical. There is a lot of pressure from agribusinesses to stop the old-time ways of farming; but unlike the U.S., there really aren't huge open spaces to make vast fields from, and the wonderful diet is vegetable-heavy as a result. You do see huge production farms of, say, semolina, sunflowers or artichokes in southern regions like Campania and Abruzzi, but there is also a powerful "Slow Food" movement.

Excellent commentary. It should be noted, however, that there are many secular Italians, including many who are outright anti-clerical. Even many people who identify as "Catholic" culturally have not been in a Church in many years (many are merely baptized and then married), and are critical of its positions on birth control, holy days of obligation, etc.

Interestingly enough, mass attendance is higher in the north than in the south. Many churches in the south have survived on the attendance of (older) women alone, with men doing something else on sundays. Alot of this has to deal with the traditional view of the institutionalized Church as an arm of feudalism in the south.

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