7 Italians arrested for beating up teenage African migrants

Seven people have been arrested in Sicily for an unprovoked attack in August on a group of teenage African migrants, Italian Carabinieri police said on Wednesday.

The suspects – four remanded in custody, three under house arrest – were charged with assault with the aggravating circumstance of ethnic and racial hatred, a statement said.

They attacked six young Gambians and a care worker accompanying them during night-time celebrations for Ferragosto, an Aug.15 bank holiday, on a beach east of Palermo.

The assault continued as the migrants drove off from the beach.

Their van was followed until a nearby city, Partinico, where the assailants forced them to get out of the vehicle and attacked them again.

According to La Repubblica daily, they were hit with a stone and baseball bats, threatened with a gun, had their mobile phones stolen, and told: “Get back to your shitty country, you must die.”

Giornale di-Sicilia, another newspaper, said those arrested were aged between 28 and 71.
Two women were among them, according to the Carabinieri statement.

There has been a reported increase in racist attacks in Italy, coinciding with a toughening of government policy against irregular migrants, spearheaded by Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini.

In Partinico, there was another assault in late July, when a 19-year-old Senegalese man was showered with racist insults and beaten up.

Two men were placed under house arrest for the crime.