Slave children forced to steal

Press, 19 April 1986, Page 11

Slave children forced to steal

By

ANDREW HURST,

of Reuter (through NZPA) Milan

Italian magistrates believe they have smashed a slavery ring based near Milan, which trained Yugoslavian gipsy children to commit thefts in northern Italy.

Hundreds of children were taken from poor Muslim families in southern Yugoslavia and smuggled into Italy where their taskmasters taught them the dubious arts of house-breaking and pickpocketing, investigators said.

Last month arrest warrants citing slavery charges were issued for 77 Yugoslavs and one Italian by a Milan public prosecutor, Corrado Carnevali. Mr Carnevali said it was the first time that he could remember that article 600 of Italy’s penal code, which bans slavery, had been invoked in an arrest warrant.

The nerve-centre of the alleged child slave trade was a ramshackle camp at Campo Muggiano, on the outskirts of Milan, where gypsies lived with their young charges.

Mr Carnevali said the sinister underworld he had exposed reminded him of Oliver Twist, the classic tale by the nine-

teenth-century author, Charles Dickens, of an orphan who is drawn into a gang of child-thieves under the patronage of a tyrannical old man. Credit for discovering the alleged slavery ring went mainly to a woman police inspector, Stefania de Bellis, whose suspicions were first aroused three years ago while questioning children who had been caught burgling, Mr Carnevali said.

He and Inspector de Bellis eventually found that the children, far from acting alone, were being coerced by gangs of adults who treated their charges like slaves. Even more disturbing was the discovery that in many cases the children’s parents had sold their children to their respective masters and were receiving a regular fee.

“In order to make these children steal, their masters had to instil a fear in them through beatings that was even greater than the natural fear they had of getting caught,” Mr Carnevali said.

They were taken every day from the gipsy camp by car and dropped in outlying villages, where they were expected to enter houses and to steal as much cash and jewellery as possible.

Once they had gathered their booty they would hail the first taxi that passed their way and return to the camp, where an awaiting adult would pay the taxi-driver and tip him generously, Mr Carnevali said. “A kind of convention developed between the children and local taxidrivers, who usually asked no questions as long as they got paid.” Children who showed a talent for house-breaking are alleged to have often changed hands several times among slaveowners, who were prepared to pay big premiums for them.

“A little girl of about 10 years of age told me that 30 million lire ($36,400) had been offered for her. She said she could pilfer that amount in 10 days,” Mr Carnevali said.

Investigators suspect that a main role in the racket was played by an Italian lawyer, now under arrest, whose job was allegedly to help the Yugoslavs retrieve children who got into trouble with the Italian authorities. Under Italian law criminal charges cannot be brought against children under the age of 14 and they are usually released as soon as a parent or family lawyer claims them.