Italy: EU to probe tough new migrant laws

The commission announced it would examine the new measures to determine whether they comply with EU norms, warning that automatic expulsion rules in the legislation are not acceptable.

European justice commissioner Jacques Barrot said that "automatic expulsion rules for entire categories are not acceptable."

But the Italian interior minister Roberto Maroni defended the new law on Friday saying those who supported it far outnumbered the critics "in quantity and quality".

Under the new law illegal immigration becomes a criminal offence, punishable with a fine of up to 10,000 euros.

The amount of time that illegal migrants can be detained in holding centres has been increased to six months but immigrants can also be deported immediately.

Anyone caught housing an illegal immigrant could face up to three years' jail and parents registering a baby's birth have to present papers to prove that they are legal residents.

The law bill also expressly allows the creation of unarmed citizen patrols, to help police and soldiers fight crime.

Amnesty International said the measures "affected negatively the vulnerable people in the country" and "heavily impinge on the rights of migrants."

Opposition groups have denounced the measures as being reminiscent of Italy's fascist era and the racial purity laws introduced by fascist leader Benito Mussolini in the 1930s.

The bill was also been criticised by the Catholic Church. Bishop Agostino Marchetto of the Vatican's Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants said he was concerned about the new measures, warning that they must not become a model for European integration policy.

But Maroni, a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League which is a crucial ally for prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government dismissed the church's criticism.

"It's the usual ritual," he said. "I think that those who have criticised the package, or have not read these norms, should rethink their criticism."

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi made tougher immigration rules a cornerstone of the election campaign that saw him return to power for the third time in May 2008. Last year about 36,000 migrants arrived in Italy mostly coming by boat from Libya across the Mediterranean.