Clashes in Rome as police attempt migrant evictions

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Protests erupted in central Rome on Thursday as police moved to evict some 800 Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees from a building they have occupied since 2013.

The eviction notice was issued last Saturday, but around 100 vulnerable refugees such as pregnant women and children, were allowed to temporarily stay on the first floor of the building, until an alternative solution is found.

Some 500 refugees and migrants found shelter elsewhere and approximately 200 people were at first given the chance to stay in a tiny garden facing the building.

On Thursday, migrants threw rocks, bottles and gas cans at police in riot gear. Police used hoses during the dawn operation, both to clear the piazza and to extinguish fires set in trash cans.

Police said the operation was necessitated by the migrants' refusal to accept city-organized lodging and because of the risk presented by the presence of cooking gas canisters and other flammable materials in the piazza surrounded by apartment buildings. Two people were detained.

At least four big evictions were carried out since early July in Rome, as a security measure and to register and identify all the squatters, according to Italian police.

Source(s): AP