Rome's city government has already evicted hundreds of Roma - including members of Italy's Sinti minority - from settlements throughout the city, resettling them in makeshift camps which the human rights organisation declared were intended to "keep them out of sight."

Amnesty's Italy director Ignacio Jovtis insisted that "these measures must be scrapped immediately.

"Roma families across the Italian capital face losing their possessions, their social contacts, their access to work and to state services, and such evictions without prior consultation and the offer of adequate alternative accommodation to all of those affected are a violation of human rights," he stressed.

Mr Jovtis pointed out that, although "many Roma live in shacks and caravans lacking basic hygienic conditions, this situation is the result of years of neglect, inadequate policies and discrimination.

"But the eviction plan, instead of addressing these problems, risks making the situation for Roma communities even worse," he explained.