ROME -- Italian police arrested 268 foreigners including many Romanians in a crackdown on crime and illegal immigration during the first week of the new right-wing government, the interior ministry said Thursday.
Most of the foreigners were Romanian and north African, anti-crime director Francesco Gratteri told a news conference, adding that Romanian police assisted in the week-long sweep.
The operation, the biggest in six months, was aimed at fighting crime "linked to illegal immigration," Gratteri said, adding that it targeted "geographical areas with particular problems."
Crime blamed on illegal migrants was a central issue in the campaign for the April elections after a series of violent crimes including rape and murder were blamed on Romanian immigrants, notably the Roma ethnic group, or gypsies.
Following through on an election pledge, the new government of Silvio Berlusconi is set to adopt tougher measures against illegal immigration next week, some aimed specifically at Roma.
The news conference was the first by the new government on security issues.
"It's not surprising at all that that's one of the first things they did" upon taking office, said political scientist Franco Pavoncello. "The message is very clear, it's going to be zero tolerance."
The previous government of centre-left leader Romano Prodi was unable to act on "elements (of the Romanian community) who are really out of control" because the far left flank of his coalition would never allow it, Pavoncello told Agence France-Presse.
"As much as you have to be careful not to be discriminatory, you have to control the situation," said Pavoncello, a professor at Rome's John Cabot University.
After the murder of an Italian naval officer's wife blamed on a Romanian of gypsy origin in October last year, the Prodi government was spurred into tough action, passing an emergency decree under which dozens of Romanians considered a threat to public security were deported.
The announcement of the crackdown came ahead of an urgent meeting later in the day between Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, who belongs to the anti-immigration Northern League, and his visiting Romanian counterpart Cristian David.
Their meeting comes after Roma living in two camps outside Naples were forced to flee their homes when they were torched by assailants on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The attacks followed the attempted kidnapping of an Italian baby by a 16-year-old girl last Saturday.
Gratteri said the raids also picked up 115 Italian nationals. Of those arrested, 111 people were accused of helping migrants enter Italy illegally, while the rest were accused of drug dealing, theft, pimping and other offences.
Most were already known to police and a total of 53 people have been deported, mainly Nigerians and Albanians, he said.
"The operation was not directed at a particular category of people. They could be Italian, from within the EU or outside," Gratteri said.
The ANSA news agency reported that a dawn raid was staged on Thursday at a camp on the outskirts of Rome that is home to some 700 people, mainly Romanians, Serbians and Bosnians.
About 50 people were arrested there, ANSA said.
Rome's new mayor Gianni Alemanno, a former neo-fascist, vowed during the election campaign to deport some 20,000 migrants with criminal records.
Berlusconi's cabinet is expected to press for tougher measures against illegal immigration such as making it a criminal offence punishable by up to four years in prison, with defendants tried within two weeks of their arrest and immediately expelled if convicted.
The new leadership also wants legislation to extend the detention of new arrivals at processing centers for as long as 18 months, from the current two months, which would necessitate the building of new centers.
They also propose DNA tests to prove family links.
Some of the measures, such as a requirement that immigrants have a minimum source of income and live in decent housing, are aimed specifically at Roma.
