'WHITE CHRISTMAS' MIGRANT EXPULSION SPARKS POLEMICS

'WHITE CHRISTMAS' MIGRANT EXPULSION SPARKS POLEMICS

(ANSA) - Rome, November 20 - A local scheme to rid a town of illegal immigrants, controversially named ''White Christmas'' continued to spark polemics on Friday.

Sonia Alfano, an EMP with the opposition Italy of Values Party (IDV)said she would bring the scheme by the small Lombardy town of Coccaglio, near the northern city of Brescia, to the attention of the European parliament.

"We're going to make sure this issue is not kept under wraps because we're well aware of the fundamental rights accorded by the (Italian) constitution and our duties of solidarities towards the weakest members of society," said Alfano.

Reform Minister Umberto Bossi said on Thursday the initiative was perfectly legal.

''The municipal council is applying the law, as they are entitled to do, in order to check who has the proper documents,'' said Bossi, who heads the Northern League, a party that has traditionally opposed immigration.

However, he admitted that the name chosen for the initiative was ''unpleasant''.

''There was no need to call it that,'' he said. ''They could have simply called it what it is, 'A Christmas legality check'''.

The two-month scheme, which runs until December 25, entails extensive house-to-house checks by immigration officials to ensure migrants' papers are in order.

Foreigners unable to produce residency papers or found to have overstayed their visas face deportation.

Defending the name on Wednesday, Coccaglio Mayor Franco Claretti said the name had been ''coincidental''.

''Local police gave it this name informally, as a kind of joke, owing to the coincidence of the dates,'' said Claretti, who heads a Northern League-dominated administration at the local council.

''It is certainly not the case that any immigrants associations or religious bodies have complained over the name''.

The parish priest of Coccaglio, Giovanni Gritti, described the name as a ''vulgar oversight'' but said he did not think it was ''intentionally blasphemous''.

However, another local priest, Salvatore Resca, wrote a letter of complaint to Coccaglio council on Thursday, implying the scheme was racist by offering to provide crucifixes depicting a black Jesus Christ to hang in public buildings.

The small Italian Communist Party (PDCI) bluntly accused the Northern League council of ''racism worthy of the Ku Klux Klan''.

Other opposition groups have also voiced strong disapproval.

All 13 senators representing Lombardy in the largest opposition Democratic Party issued a joint statement just hours after the news broke, condemning the scheme as ''shameful, uncivilized and unconstitutional''.

''Linking Christmas, which even for non-Christians is a day symbolizing acceptance and solidarity, with a campaign of racist hatred is an inhumane decision,'' they said.

The Senate Whip for the centrist Christian UDC party Gianpiero D'Alia called on the government to take immediate action to end this ''farcical operation''.

''Christmas is a festival of welcome, not discrimination,'' he said.

The Italian Association of Christian Workers (ACLI) described the name as ''an instigation to racial hatred'' that was ''both blasphemous and disturbing''.

The scheme was launched on October 25 but the name has only come to national attention in recent days.

The council has not provided figures of how many foreigners have been expelled so far.