Rome, 11 July (AKI) - The United Nations' children's charity, UNICEF, on Friday reiterated its opposition to the Italian government's move to fingerprint Gypsies and clamp down on illegal immigration.

"We are totally opposed to the fingerprinting of Roma Gypsy children," said Roberto Salvan, director of UNICEF in Italy.

"This census of Roma Gypsy children contravenes the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child."

Salvan was one of the speakers at a debate at the Foreign Press Association in Rome entitled 'Anti-immigration measures. What future for immigrants in Italy?'

The debate in Rome came a day after members of the European Parliament rebuked the Italian government for its plans to fingerprint inhabitants of Gypsy camps in Rome, Naples and Milan - including children.

The Euro-MPs condemned the fingerprinting as a direct act of racial discrimination and called on Italy to stop the practice.

"We are ready to support the Italian government in any initiatives to alleviate the acute deprivation in which Roma Gypsy families and their children live," Salvan added.

He also said a number of praiseworthy initiatives by local authorities, such as a hostel in Rome for child beggars have been stopped due to a lack of funds.

UNICEF has openly criticised the fingerprinting move and the Italian government's plan to make illegal immigration a crime.

"This is just punishing the victims. We are in favour of other methods," he said, citing interviews using cultural mediators and the use of photos rather than fingerprinting to identify people.

Oliviero Forti from the Catholic charity Caritas said the organisation is "extremely worried by what is happening in Italy."

He said Caritas is working with the Italian Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, on a number of issues including the arrival of hundreds of illegal immigrants who are landing weekly on Italy's southern coast.

"I am not only talking about fingerprinting but the government's planned security measures, the right to asylum and the problem of trafficking," he said in Rome.

There are four million legal immigrants in Italy, he noted. Some 60 percent of Roma Gypsies in Italy have Italian citizenship.

Forti, from Caritas' immigration office, underlined the need to distinguish between the country's "historic Roma community" and the number of newcomers who have come here in recent years ( especially since Romania and Slovakia joined the European Union).

In Italy, discrimination has not been overcome and is occurring on the basis of skin colour, Fort said. He urged a public information campaign on immigration issues to make Italians aware of the problems migrants face, beginning in the 200 parishes that have a Caritas branch.

Although most Italians don't go to mass, the Catholic Church does have influence. People listen when the Pope says something," Forti said.

"Moreover, we are now seeing inter-ethnic discrimination between established immigrant groups and newcomers with their own group," he noted.

In obsessing over illegal immigration, policymakers are losing sight of the bigger picture, Forti argued.

"We need a broad immigration policy. Limiting legal immigration only increases illegal migration. We can't hide behind barricades," he stressed.

Forti and other speakers agreed that in past decades, the Italian economy was stronger and immigrants were not seen as competitors. Now, Italians are earning less than any other Western European country and feel directly threatened by immigrants.

He criticised Italy for "passing on its social problems to immigrants," pointing out the difficulty of legalising enough foreign home helps who play a vital role by caring for old people but who have entered Italy illegally.

A free telephone set up by Italy's National Anti-Racial Discrimination Office (UNAR) receives 10,000 calls annually, said one of its consultants, Pietro Vulpiani.

"Many calls we receive are not strictly linked to discrimination, but other practical problems, for example permits of stay," he said.

"Many forms of discrimination are hidden or indirect."

These can be not providing translations in the immigrant's language and being treated less favourably owing to race.

Victims often don't even realise they are victims of indirect discrimination, or are reluctant to confront an employer, he pointed out.

UNAR has mandated over 300 organisations in Italy that work with immigrants to represent in court and support victims of discrimination.

Victims of xenophobia have changed in Italy over the decades. In the 1980s many were Moroccans, in the 1990s they were Albanians and now Romanians are on the receiving end, Vulpiani and the other experts said.

Apartment buildings - where Italian and immigrant families are living next door to one another - are now one of the commonest sources of racial tension, Vulpiani said.

"These disputes can be very unpleasant and cannot be solved juridically. UNAR tries to solve them via cultural mediators before complaints are made to the police and relations really sour," he said.

UNAR, which is a European Union funded initiative, will spend EU funds through to 2013 on projects aimed at combating discrimination in Italian localities, initially in the southern regions of Campania, Calabria, Sicily and Basilicata.