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Rome: Italian police said on Thursday they had arrested almost 400 people in a week during a crackdown on street crime and illegal immigration.
The operation started the day before the swearing in of Italy's new government, which has pledged to improve safety on the streets of Italy following a spate of crimes in recent months blamed on foreigners.
Police have arrested 383 people, including about 270 foreign nationals, mainly Romanian and North Africans, since May 7, officials said on Thursday.
They also expelled 53 people, mostly Nigerians and Albanians, the Interior Ministry officials said.
"This operation targets those crimes that are connected to the bigger phenomenon of illegal immigration," Francesco Gratteri, a top police official, said at a news conference. The operation was carried out in cooperation with Romanian authorities.
Those arrested are suspected of robberies, helping illegal immigration and prostitution, robberies and drug trafficking.
Also Thursday, officers in Rome raided a camp of Roma people from eastern Europe and detained scores of Bosnians and Romanians without proper papers, police said.
Other camps were evacuated in Naples, southern Italy, earlier this week after attackers set huts on fire and angry residents of neighboring areas protested against the alleged attempt by a Roma woman to kidnap a baby.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government is preparing tougher measures against illegal immigrants with the first expected to be approved at a Cabinet meeting next week.
Mayors of some major cities, including the right-wing mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, said they want to appoint special commissioners to deal with what they say is the Roma emergency in their cities.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni was scheduled to meet his Romanian counterpart, Cristian David, later Thursday in Rome.
Maroni has suggested Italy might try to restrict the entry of Romanians into the country, despite Romania joining the EU this year.
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