IMMIGRATION RIGHTS PRIEST ARRESTED IN RESIDENCY PERMIT BUST

IMMIGRATION RIGHTS PRIEST ARRESTED IN RESIDENCY PERMIT BUST

(ANSA) - Rome, February 9 - A Sicilian priest known as a champion for immigrants' rights was among nine people arrested on Tuesday in connection with an alleged residency permit racket.

Police said Father Carlo D'Antoni used his Siracusa church, a popular refuge for the local immigrant community, as a base of operations for a scam charging mainly Nigerian and Chinese women ''large'' sums of money for fake documents they could use to apply for asylum or Italian residency.

Also arrested were a fellow immigrants' rights advocate and lawyer together with seven Nigerians who allegedly recruited ''clients'' among local prostitutes.

The news was greeted with surprise and disbelief from D'Antoni's parishioners, who said that his neighbourhood church doubled as a community center and refuge for many immigrants.

A vocal campaigner in defence of exploited immigrant day-laborers, D'Antoni was said to have launched an appeal on their behalf for better pay and sanitary conditions shortly before being arrested.

He was also known to visit them at camp sites erected during the spring harvest season where he would take his meals and spend the night, according to parishioners.

This is the latest in a slew of police operations targeting residency permit scams in recent weeks, the latest in the Northern Italy town of Cuneo last week where Italian businessmen and a group of Moroccans were accused of selling false work papers to over a hundred North African immigrants.