Criticism forces Italy to scale back Gypsy fingerprinting campaign

ROME (AP) — Italian officials carrying out a survey of the country’s Gypsy population will fingerprint only those who don’t have a valid ID, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday, apparently dropping plans to fingerprint all Gypsies after critics called it discriminatory.

The ministry said the new guidelines were sent to local authorities in Rome, Milan and Naples, where tens of thousands of Gypsies live in hundreds of shabby encampments built on the cities’ outskirts.

The conservative government maintains the census is needed to establish who is living in the country illegally.