Italy rallies for immigrant rights

In Rome on Monday, several thousand immigrants and their supporters marched from Porta Maggiore, an area near the city's Termini station with a high migrant population, to Piazza Vittoria in the centre of the tourist district.

Other cities saw larger marches, with 20,000 in Naples, a centre for African agricultural workers and 10,000 in Padua.

Large contingents from a variety of groups marched, representing Romanian, Kurdish and African contingents.

The march concluded a 24-hour "day without migrants" strike by some of the more than five million documented and undocumented migrants who currently make up 10 per cent of the country's workforce.

Though the strike was largely symbolic, over 50 factories closed in Brescia after the action won the support of the metal workers' union.

Marchers voiced both frustration with the increasing anti-immigrant mood of the country and a determination to resist it.

"We work day and night" said Ion, from Timisoara in Romania, who lived undocumented in the country for years before Romania entered the EU.

"We pay taxes every time we buy something."

Others, especially younger participants, stressed their universal rights, with speaker after speaker calling on the marchers to "stand up for our humanity.

"We are all migrants" was one key statement.

Since 2001, migrants in Italy have been subject to increasing legislative and political persecution.

The Bossi-Fini Act, drafted by the leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League and former leader of the post-fascist National Alliance party Gianfranco Fini, imposes dozens of conditions on migrants to Italy, effectively turning them into provisional guest workers.