Italy: priest appeals for Gypsies forced to live in rubbish dump

Following the dumping of three bodies of people killed by the mafia in a Roma settlement near Naples, last week, a Jesuit priest has called for the government to do something to improve the living conditions of the area. The Romany Gypsies, currently live in shacks, with little electricity or running water, in a derelit area which is used by the city as a rubbish dump. Fr Domenico Pizzuti SJ said: "Besides the homicidal violence, this episode brings to the attention of public authorities and citizens the sad conditions in which some Roma groups live, without the elementary basic necessities. This area now is not just a dump. It has also become a cemetery as well." Fr Pizzuti is currently working with other organisations, lobbying with local and municipal authorities and advocating the rights of Roma people, beginning with the right to basic sanitation facilities in their camps. Source: SJS