Dear Santa Claus,
I know it’s late to write and ask you for a present at this stage. I guess you have started your journey and your luggage is overflowing with presents.

Since a racist gunman shot five Senegalese in Florence two days ago, killing two and leaving three wounded, different politicians have been condemning the barbaric act.

President of the Republic of Italy Giorgio Napolitano was amongst the very first to strongly condemn the attack and show solidarity with the Senegalese community.

The Italian Senate on Wednesday approved the government's 54 billion Euro package of revised austerity measures. One of the measures introduces a 2% tax on remittances abroad by irregular immigrants, imposing a minimum tax of 3 Euros to be charged for each transaction.

Legal immigrant workers who are registered with the Italian National Social Security Institute (INPS) and those with Tax codes are exempted from this tax.

This technically means that the new tax will not be applicable to all immigrants who are in the country legally.

Italian Government recently announced additional emergency austerity measures to fend off a sovereign debt crisis. The austerity measures which are currently being debated in Parliament, have provoked a tug-of-war between government and opposition MPs.

As controversial as it may appear, we think the politicians are ignoring a very important measure which may steer Italy out of crisis, that is, regularising illegal immigrant workers.