"Across Europe thousands of children are being forced onto the streets to beg and steal." "They come from the poorest community in Europe, the Romanian gypsies." "For centuries, they've lived on the margins of society and faced brutal discrimination." "Many have resorted to begging and stealing to survive." "But in the last 20 years, organised crime has taken over." "And since 2007, when Romania joined the EU, gypsy children have been trafficked and exploited on a massive scale." "In Spain, eight-year-olds robbing grown men at cash machines has become a common sight." "In Italy, a major police investigation found enslaved children locked in a shack like animals." "TRANSLATION:" "It's only the tip of the iceberg and it's a phenomenon we'll have to fight against for a very long time." "My name is Liviu Tipurita." "I grew up in Romania and I've been making films about gypsies and about child trafficking for many years." "To investigate what's happening to these children, I'm going on a journey that takes me inside the closed world of the gypsy community." "TRANSLATION:" "This child needs to go to school, not to beg and to steal." "And we reveal the shocking tide of racism they face." "TRANSLATION:" "They are people who should be killed but we can't kill them." "These children are the victims of a culture of crime and a wider society that seems to have abandoned them." "The question is, will anyone save them from the hands of their exploiters?" "It's the week before Christmas in Madrid." "For the Spanish children, it's a time of great joy and anticipation." "But it's not all tinsel and presents." "I'm here because I've heard there are many gypsy children from Romania in the city working as thieves." "Wandering about the centre of town, I see gypsy beggars and buskers, but there's something more sinister going on here." "As I head back to my hotel," "I see a girl hanging around the cash machine." "She's no older than 13." "At first sight, she appears to be begging, but actually she's watching customers as they enter their PIN and approaches them as they're about to withdraw money." "A police car drives by and she flees." "We follow." "She's using a piece of paper to cover her hand as she tries to press the button for the highest sum available on the cash machine and take the money as it comes out." "She's a distraction thief, one of the gypsy children that the police say make up a third of all the under 17-year-olds they have to deal with in the city." "She's gone." "She saw us, she's running away now." "I'm heading for the outskirts of Madrid to try and track down some of the children who are stealing." "One of my gypsy contacts has tipped me off that they might be living in a camp south of the city." "Nestling between two motorways and an open cast mine, this gypsy camp is one of Spain's largest." "They live in plywood shacks." "There are mountains of garbage everywhere." "There's no sanitation, no running water." "They use an improvised crude wiring system to steal electricity." "I'm supposed to be in a civilised European country but the conditions these children are living in are more like the slums of India." "TRANSLATION:" "Most of us are ill, nearly all of us." "If a doctor comes here to give us a check-up he's bound to find hepatitis C or hepatitis B." "There's definitely hepatitis here." "They're ill, the children, tortured." "Look at the state of these children, they don't even have trousers on." "The Roma children are cleverer than any other nation's children." "They are clever, but they are not in school because we don't have the means to send them there." "Among the piles of garbage I meet a man called Zabar, who's skinning a stolen sheep for his neighbour." "Zabar has lived in this camp for five years with his wife and three children." "Leaving his share of the cutlets out to dry," "Zabar takes me to the top of the hill to tell me about life in the camp." "TRANSLATION:" "This is our camp, where we live." "242 families." "Everybody came here to make money, but it's not clear how." "There are 500 children, and out of the 500 children," "I don't know if there are 150 that go to school." "As we head back towards the camp," "Zabar opens up about how his two teenage nephews are making a living." "They break into cars, steal car stereos and sell them for 20, 30 euros apiece and they can live off that." "Zabar himself steals copper." "His wife begs, and with the money they make they're building a house in Romania." "Until it's completed, they have to put up with the camp's dreadful conditions, which include the rats that roam everywhere." "They used to jump on us and they nipped my children's legs and hands." "They were very aggressive." "Now they've calmed down." "We put concrete on the floors of the shacks and now they don't come in." "It's nearly 10pm, and a group of children are returning from the city." "They're three girls and two boys, all under the age of 14." "Zabar knows them." "Another day, I go back to the camp to try and find the children who go out stealing in the city." "Daniela was in the group of kids I saw the other night." "She's hanging out with Zabar's nephews." "I take a chance and approach her." "TRANSLATION:" "To beg, to steal, What, we can't steal?" "From cash machines." "Who says we can't steal?" "So what if they lock me up?" "Big deal." "You put in your card, you type in your PIN, you take the card, we take the money." "We take the money and come home." "400, 300, 600, sometimes 1,000 euros." "When you go begging, you work until ten at night and you make 50, 60, and you come home, but when you steal you make 300 in one go." "It's easier." "What, stealing?" "It's not dangerous." "Seriously, it's only the police that catch us." "They take the money, they take us to the day centre and the centre lets us go." "They're minors." "If they're under 14 they don't do anything to them." "I give it to my mother so we can build a house in Romania, but I hide some of it for myself." "I give her 150 and I keep 150." "Suddenly an argument breaks out and they turn against me." "It's time for me to leave." "It's becoming dangerous." "Next morning I return to the camp." "I want to follow the children into town and see if what Daniela told me is true." "The only link between the camp and the city is the bus, number 339." "After 9 o'clock, children start to appear and head for the bus stop." "We follow the bus into Madrid." "They get off in Conde Casal." "We monitor the bus stop." "Every day, we see children arriving with the women who beg in the city." "One day, I see a girl who lives in the camp wandering by herself in the centre of Madrid." "She looks about 13." "I watch as she targets a woman at the cash machine and nearly succeeds in stealing her money." "It takes four passers-by to stop her." "The girl steals a scarf right in front of me and disguises herself." "Then she hangs around a number of cash machines ready to pounce." "A security guard from the bank calls the police." "They arrive swiftly." "But after talking to her for a few minutes, they let her go." "She skips off and waves to the security guard." "I've spoken to the Madrid police department that deals with child crime." "9 % of the children under the age of 14 they pick up for stealing in Madrid are Romanian gypsies." "The police say there's not much they can do, as in Spain children of this age cannot be held responsible for their crimes." "They also tell me that many of the children are sent out to steal by their own parents." "The police feel powerless because the punishment for those who exploit their children is very light." "It's Christmas Eve, and the Romanian gypsy band is entertaining the families who are out with their children enjoying the street performances, the extravagant light displays and the decorations." "But ten miles away in the gypsy camp, things are different." "Here, children are gathering around the fire and are trying to make the most of this day." "MAN HUMS "JINGLE BELLS"" "A man is trying to set up an aerial to get Romanian TV channels and beat the homesick Christmas blues." "When he finishes, the man, who's called Nai, joins Zabar and his son by watching a wedding party that is taking place on a hill on the other side of the camp." "Many Roma gypsies marry off their children at a very early age." "The girls are in effect sold into marriage." "Nai himself sold his daughter when she was 12." "TRANSLATION:" "Look, that gypsy who lives on top of the hill got 7,000 euros for his daughter." "I got 25 million lei for my daughter in 2004." "About 800 euros." "But now since we're in the EU, it's become much more expensive." "The marriage was consummated last night and now they're celebrating the fact that the 13-year-old bride was a virgin." "This is our gypsy custom." "If she's untouched, if she's a virgin, she's valuable." "But the reason the bride fetched such a high price was not only her virginity." "She steals, she follows the Spanish, she withdraws 700, 800, 1,000 euros." "She robs them and she runs." "Yes, at 13." "If she wasn't a valuable thief, they wouldn't have paid 1,000 euros for her." "7,000 euros, in two weeks maximum, they'll get it back." "At this point I tried to film the wedding, but I'm told that I can't." "Marrying off their under-age children is illegal in Spain and they could go to jail." "Over the next few weeks," "I follow many children from the camp as they head into the city." "One day I see a group of three girls from the camp, all around the age of 13." "They walk for miles across the city staking out cash machines." "I'm later told that this girl, in the black leather jacket, is the bride who was sold for 7,500 euros." "Watching them play in the snow," "I think that these are probably their last moments of childhood." "I was told the girl in purple is also married and the girl in pink is up for sale as a bride for 25,000 euros." "They're bold in their attacks, and do not seem to care if their target is much stronger." "This man has to physically fight them off before they finally leave." "I wonder what makes them so fearless - the knowledge that they cannot be punished, or the desperation to make back the money that is paid for them." "On another day, a car pulls over." "The man ushers them in." "It looks like the police and they are taken away." "Once the police identify the kids they pick up on the streets, they take them to this centre." "The role of this place is to assess the family situation of each child." "If their family is deemed responsible, they are called to collect them." "But I've been told that sometimes the kids are handed back to the very adults who send them out to steal." "So we decide to stake out the place, to see who picks the children up." "Soon we see three children being released." "But they're on their own, no-one has collected them." "One of them is the girl who stole a scarf in the centre of Madrid." "They head for the tube." "They go into the underground station, but guards with dogs force them out." "They seem lost and we follow them as they continue to walk for miles until, eventually, they catch the bus back to the rat-infested camp." "I asked these people for an interview a few weeks ago and they finally agreed to it." "I really wanted to talk to the staff who work directly with the gypsy children." "Unfortunately, that's not possible." "However, I'm meeting the head of the Madrid Institute for Children and Family." "I really want to find out from her, what are they doing for these children?" "Can you release these children from the centre if they are not picked up by an adult?" "TRANSLATION:" "No." "Here we don't leave the door open for them to go." "We wait for an adult to come because we are talking about minors." "On two other occasions, I saw young children being let out from the centre and returning home on their own." "Since the interview, Ms Martin has said that they can't stop the kids from coming and going as they please, as it's an open centre, not a jail." "I am concerned about the Spanish authorities allowing under-age children to wander the streets at night." "But what worries me even more is the prospect of them handing back the children to those who may exploit them." "Is it a good idea to return these children to the families that exploit them?" "We never return a child to a family unless we have all the guarantees that the family is going to take care of the minor." "How do you make sure that the family doesn't exploit the child?" "It's not a job we do from here." "It's the job of the police and the judges to check." "We ask for information from the social services to have guarantees that the family has the necessary means of survival." "That they have jobs, a home." "And, of course, we check if the child is at school, receiving his education like all other children in Spain." "This short interview didn't really allay my fears raised by what I had seen during my surveillance of the centre." "One night I watch as three young children, all around the age of 10, are released." "They appear to be accompanied by two adults." "But the adults go their own way and the kids are on their own for over an hour." "Then a man arrives." "He wears a red hooded top." "He goes inside the centre and, soon after, he comes out with some more children." "'They all get in a green car.'" "There are one, two, three, four, five...six children." "A car full of children." "This is the man, the man in red." "'They drive off.'" "God, this is bad luck." "Is it them up there?" "We're just following them." "We're trying to find them." "We caught two red traffic lights." "I don't know if we'll ever catch up with them." "We hit the motorway which leads to the camp." "But the chances of finding them now are quite slim." "There they are, there." "On the left." "Oh, there they are." "That's the car." "We found them." "Thank God for the traffic." "We think they might be going to the camp, but we're not sure." "Let's see." "They're heading off and they're just ahead of us." "These people don't live in the camp." "They are turning right." "Turning right." "They're getting out of the car." "There they are." "All the kids." "I'm going to go and have a closer look." "These guys don't live in a camp." "They live in a block of flats over there." "Over the next few days, we stake out the block of flats." "Every morning, a woman checks to see if the coast is clear." "Then, four young boys leave the building and take the tube." "One day we follow them into town." "They split up into pairs." "We watch as one of the pairs target a cash machine." "One of the boys looks about 12." "The other one, as young as eight." "They try to rob an elderly customer." "These boys are aggressive." "They don't stop until passers-by intervene." "When I see them acting like this, my first reaction is anger." "But then I remember that they are just young children." "A few minutes later, they're at it again." "The older boy pushes the younger one towards the customer." "But the man, who's twice their size, pushes him back." "They give up." "These children are under enormous pressure to make money." "They're gutsy and daring and they're ready to take on and defy even strong, young men." "When passers-by approach, they pretend to beg." "This is well rehearsed." "They are probably trained to act like this." "As I watched them asleep on the tube, I ask myself who are the adults forcing these kids into a life of crime?" "No one here in Madrid seems to be investigating." "Back in the gypsy camp, the children are enjoying the snow." "As they play, many other kids from this camp are on the streets of the city, robbing and stealing." "What is to blame for their lost childhood?" "Is it extreme poverty?" "Is it the Roma culture?" "Or is it ruthless criminal exploitation?" "It is a new year and the City is holding the traditional Three King's Parade for the Spanish children." "Looking at their joyous faces, I can't help thinking about the gypsy children and how this city's authorities are failing them." "Why are they being handed back to those who are at best neglecting them and at worst severely exploiting them?" "To understand what's behind this disturbing phenomenon," "I'm leaving Spain for the country where gypsy crime has come to dominate the headlines" " Italy." "Here, the right-wing government recently declared a gypsy emergency, giving police powers to the army in major cities and strengthening the immigration laws." "And several gypsy camps have been attacked by local residents, some being burned to the ground." "I've come to Milan to meet the policeman who's been investigating crime in the gypsy community." "TRANSLATION:" "If I come to Italy and I try to live in Italy," "I have to adapt to the Italian law and behaved civilly, like any other citizen does." "Stealing is a crime and you can't hide behind your culture." "A few months after Romania joined the European Union in 2007, the police noticed a massive upsurge in pick-pocketing and theft by children around Milan's Central Station." "So, we started an investigation that lasted seven months." "It showed the existence of a multi-pronged, transnational organisation that operates in different countries in Europe." "The police installed surveillance cameras around the square to identify the 50 gypsy children who were operating there and those who control them." "The 13-year-old boy in the red-sleeved T-shirt follows a tourist to steal her money." "The woman notices him." "She's shocked." "The boy feigns innocence." "There are dozens of attacks like this in the Central Station, day-in and day-out." "Then, obviously, we tapped the adults' phones, which they used to talk to each other." "These kids were clearly controlled." "They were controlled every single moment of the day." "The recordings show adults cruelly exploiting vulnerable children." "This man was one of the controllers, said to have his own army of children stealing for him." "We learnt that the organisation could make about 400 euros per day from each kid." "And, if we calculated the activity over a period of a month, each kid earned about 12,000 euros." "12,000 euros times by 50 kids..." "If you do the maths, you reach an astronomical amount of money." "According to the police, the children were making over half a million euros per month for their exploiters." "In order to establish the complex connections within the organisation, it took months of hard work for Messina and his investigative team." "Men and women were part of this complex organisation that was structured on three levels." "At the first level, we have the young adults that control the kids while they're operating on the street." "Then, at the second level, we have people whose job it is to pick up the kids." "The police found that members of the children's families were often involved." "Most of the money made by the children was sent to Romania." "Then, the third level, the command level, the most important one, is based in Romania and consists of the bosses who decide the strategy of the organisation and reinvest the money that comes from the criminal activities." "The police established that the Milan part of the operation was run from an illegal camp set in a derelict farm just outside the city." "On the morning of 11th December 2007, Messina's team got ready to move in." "Nearly 200 police officers, with helicopter backup, descended upon the gypsy camp." "There were around 200 people living in the camp." "The police were looking for 25 suspects, all involved in the exploitation of the children operating at the Central Station." "This man and his wife were wanted for kidnapping a ten-year-old boy from Romania and forcing him to steal." "They threatened to break the boy's arms if he didn't bring in the money." "As the police search for suspects continued, they made a shocking discovery." "In a small shack, locked with a chain, they found over 15 children." "These children were kept in captivity in terrible conditions." "The police knew the children well from the numerous times they stopped them in Central Station square." "The exploited children were taken into care." "But they all escaped, apart from one, who testified against his exploiters." "19 members of the organisation were arrested in the camp and six in Romania, with the help of the local police." "The trial was held in Milan." "They were all found guilty for enslaving the children and given sentences between 4 and 14 years." "I'm a parent." "I have two small children." "I'm a father and, frankly, to see this situation deeply shocked me." "I'm heading for the gypsy camp where the police operation took place." "The ruined farm is located in the middle of some fields." "To my surprise, the place is still inhabited." "I've seen quite a few expensive cars going in and out." "There's a BMW X5 coming out just now." "This place is impossible to surveil without being noticed." "We need to move." "Could child exploitation still be going on here?" "The camp is too dangerous to go in, but I have an idea." "Nearby, there's a tube station that links this place with the city." "If children are still being sent into Milan to steal, it's very likely they'll be taking the train from here." "Over the next few days, I stake out the station and watch as every morning different groups of children head into town." "They're young boys, often accompanied by adults." "One day, I recognise one of the boys that police found locked in the shack when they raided the camp." "His name is Bobi." "We follow him into town." "He becomes aware of us and we lose him." "But, on another day, we see him following an old man." "A young adult with a black top walks right behind him." "Bobi picks the old man's pocket." "It's the same technique I've seen in the police surveillance videos." "I wonder if the adult is his controller." "We follow them and see the adult getting rough with Bobi." "He must be his controller." "We continue to monitor the station near the camp." "I recognise Dixan and Dan, two more boys from the police raid." "We see them at work in the busy Tube station, attempting to steal from a woman's bag as they follow her up some stairs." "On another day, they spot a woman with two young children." "They run after her and ruthlessly lift her purse from her bag." "They empty the contents of the wallet, drop it on the floor and walk off." "They head back to the camp." "Our investigation has shown that the children who were being exploited two years ago from the ruined farm are once again thieving on the streets of the city." "It's clear that the elaborate police operation has not saved them from a life of crime." "I'm meeting up with the Deputy Mayor of Milan, Riccardo De Corato, who has led the city's controversial crackdown on gypsy crime." "TRANSLATION:" "A strong response would be to kick out Romania from the European Union and consider Romania outcast." "Do you believe it could be done?" "It's impossible." "Today the EU is expanding." "De Corato expresses opinions that would be unthinkable for politicians in most European countries." "The Roma don't really know the meaning of work because we always find them in the camps." "They send the women to work and prostitute themselves and the children are sent to steal." "Also if you went now to any of the camps you'd just find men playing cards." "So someone tell me how I can possibly explain to these people the concept of work, when their concept of life is without work and the work is left to women and children instead." "So it follows that it's not us being racist, but it's them who don't know how to be in our society." "Deputy Mayor De Corato has pledged to close down the 51 illegal gypsy camps around Milan." "And this morning the camp will be bulldozed." "This is the 7th time it's been closed down in the last two years." "The gypsies who live here know the drill and they're already clearing out." "The social services offer of shelter has conditions attached which the people here find unacceptable." "Only one family take the social services assistance." "The rest scatter." "The camp is now closed." "But for a handful of gypsy families who live there, life may be about to change for the better." "A local charity, Casa della Carita, is offering them shelter." "We just brought here the five families we're going to welcome here in the house." "They seem happy." "These families are being given help because in spite of the hardship of the camp they send their children to school." "Don Massimo is the vice-president of this charity." "He explains to the new arrivals the house rules." "Don Massimo has little tolerance of those who break the rules, which also include no begging and no stealing." "That night it rains." "The new arrivals of Casa della Carita have a roof over their head." "But for all the other gypsies that were left homeless it's going to be a bad night." "A few days later I return to the site of the camp to see if any gypsies have moved back in, as has happened several times before." "All that's left are the rats." "Around the corner the local residents are having coffee and cakes." "There's a heavy police presence." "The gathering has been organised by Lega Nord, a popular right-wing political party." "Why are you here today?" "TRANSLATION:" "To celebrate the closure of the Romany camp and because I was pick-pocketed twice." "Now that they've been kicked out, I'm happy." "TRANSLATION:" "Sure, it's safer now, but for how long?" "Because these people just move from one kilometre to the next." "They're always here." "TRANSLATION:" "The Roma, the nomads, what ever you call them, it's disgusting the way they exploit children and old people." "TRANSLATION:" "They're people who should be killed but we can't kill them." "The gypsy issue has fuelled a swing to the right in Italy." "Casa della Carita believes the situation is more complex." "The right wing says the Romany gypsies are just people that exploit their children and women for stealing, for begging and maybe there's a bit of a truth in this, but the real problem is that some of the gypsies actually beg and steal" "because that's the only chance that they have for surviving." "Donatella has been working with Romanian gypsies for over four years." "The charity has developed a programme which tries to integrate gypsies into Italian society." "It starts with paying close attention to the needs of each individual." "Generally what they want to achieve is a job, a regular job, and a house, but not all of them can speak good Italian, can relate in a very good way or have professional skills that they can use on the market." "As well as training, Casa della Carita has a lot more to offer." "There's free food and clothing, tutoring for the children, the chance to live rent-free in a little purpose built house." "They can even provide subsidised flats in the city." "And they've had some successes." "She's Loridana and she's one of our youth." "She's 19 years old." "She'll soon be 20." "And she's just started to work." "She's just started to attend the course for the driving licence and she's just opened her personal saving account because she wants to spare the money for herself and she really doesn't want to marry." "So..!" "This is probably the effect of the cultural influence that we had on her, so she attended school here, she learnt a job here, she started to relate to our models and so she actually embraced our models as her own." "As vice-president of Casa della Carita, Don Massimo is fighting a constant battle." "He's under regular attack from the right wing." "But there's also the question of whether their model of integration is actually destroying the gypsy culture." "TRANSLATION:" "I don't want to change their values." "I want these values to live together next to other people's lifestyles." "Of course to do this maybe someone has to renounce something, to give in a bit, but this path is absolutely possible." "Possible it may be but the process of integration takes time and is beset with difficulties, as many gypsies aren't prepared to change and follow the charity's rules." "One of the main things they have to renounce is using their children for stealing and begging." "This is by no means a simple exercise." "Ten year-old Irinel has just arrived here." "His family used to live in the Bakla camp and from there they sent him begging." "Irinel's eight-year-old brother, Claudio, also goes begging." "If this family persists in sending their two sons begging, there's a strong chance that the charity will send them back onto the streets." "This has happened before." "Only this tough of approach can break the cycle of child exploitation, common in the Romanian gypsy culture." "Casa della Carita's model of integration seems to be working." "But the task facing them and other charities trying to help the gypsies is enormous." "During my time in Milan, I have seen gypsy children exploited by both their own families and by organised crime." "I've seen children as young as three begging here on the tube." "It's very sad." "And it's shocking that today, in Europe, with all that laws and services that are there to protect children, this exploitation can happen on such a large scale." "It's time for me to leave Italy and head to Romania, to trace the routes of this problem." "But before my departure, as I walk through the centre of Milan," "I encounter one of the most heartbreaking cases I have seen since I've been on the road." "This girl, who looks no older than ten, is begging as this woman watches on." "I'm not sure whether she is her mother or her controller, or both." "The girl is friendly with the local store owners." "She's good at her job and seems to get a reasonable amount of money." "All the cash she makes, she gives to the woman." "They have a strange relationship." "I watch as they share a tender moment." "But it's not long before I see a much darker side to it." "The girl goes to help a church worker for a few moments, and doesn't make any money." "When she returns, the woman is angry and beats her with a stick from her bag." "The girl cries and is clearly afraid." "Under pressure, she goes back to work." "She even feeds the woman a few times, with the food she has begged." "I watch this girl working solidly for ten hours late into the night, begging in restaurants and bars where a young child has no place." "She hands her last pennies over but the woman is still not happy..." "..and hits her across the face." "I've returned to Romania to try and find the origins of this exploitation within the gypsy community." "Romania is home to the largest gypsy population in the world." "The gypsies originally came here about 1,000 years ago from northern India and have been subjected to discrimination and violence ever since." "In a village near the border with Hungary, I meet Cornel, who lives with his family in abject poverty, like most of the gypsies in Romania." "This man is 38 and he has so many children that he has literally lost count of them." "His story is similar to those of tens of thousands desperately poor gypsies who have been trafficked to the West and exploited there by the people from their own community." "It all began with a promise, made by a trafficker." "TRANSLATION:" "He says come because it is good there, everyone is getting houses." "Come, you will get some business." "Within a month you will get yourself a house like you've never seen." "The trafficker sorted out the passports and took Cornel and his wife, with two of their young children to Milan." "When they arrived there they were put in a squat." "TRANSLATION:" "There were about 100 families there, from top to bottom it was full of children." "Cornel and his family worked as beggars for two months in Milan." "But the trafficker took everything they earned." "They escaped and returned to Romania." "The trafficker caught up with them, demanding the money he claimed he'd spent taking them to Italy." "TRANSLATION:" "Seven years I paid him the debt." "I paid it back." "I gave him all my social benefits." "But it wasn't just Cornel that went abroad to make money." "Almost al the gypsies in the village have been as well." "Largely excluded from mainstream society, many Romanian gypsies have resorted to criminality." "I have come to one of the gypsy crime strongholds, the city of Craiova." "Most of those in prison for child enslavement as a result of the police operation in Milan come from here." "This is a dangerous place." "TRANSLATION:" "Craiova seems a suffocated by the gypsy clans which control half the city." "Although it is unacceptable in a European Romania the authorities admit they are helpless to face this phenomenon." "The internal wars between gypsy families are carried out on the streets with guns and swords." "I'm here to meet up with a powerful leader of the gypsy underworld." "The neighbourhood where he lives is a home to over 10,000 gypsies, most of them belong up to one clan, the thieves." "TRANSLATION:" "So we're going into this room which is specially made like a museum of photos." "Here are all my relatives." "That's my father, one of the greatest gypsy leaders of Craiova." "And he was part of the clan of the best thieves." "I am part of this family that occupies itself with stealing." "His nickname is Brilliant and for him stealing is a profession that has been passed on from generation to generation." "Having come from a long that line of a thieves," "Brilliant has a special insight into the history of gypsy crime." "When did their Romanian gypsies from Romania start going west?" "TRANSLATION:" "I can't remember exactly but in any case between 1980 and 1989." "They earned quickly because having escaped a communist country they had the right to asylum and residency in those countries and they came back with special cars and built outstanding houses." "And they came back to use the power that they had and they said," ""Whoever goes to these countries gets rich"." "I grew up on this street." "At the age of 12 or 14 I started pick-pocketing to contribute to help my grandparents because my parents and my uncles had been arrested." "When Brilliant was a child, this district was dirt poor." "But at the beginning of the 90s, when the gypsies from here went to the West to steal and beg, the neighbourhood started to pick up." "When they saw this possibility of making money, at a certain point they no longer wanted to go begging themselves because the truth is when someone has a lot of money they begin having character, dignity and they are ashamed to steal and to beg." "And then in order to keep making money and under the pretence that they want to help others, they try to persuade them to go and beg." "Look there, what a house, what a courtyard!" "This guy is called Philip." "He initiated many departures, he opened the roads, as they say, in a few countries, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, America." "He got to Australia, yes, and that house, this house and this house are all his." "There is no need for him to go abroad any more because he makes his money as a loan shark." "In the last 20 years the neighbourhood has flourished and nowadays every street here has dozens of imposing villas that Brilliant says are built from the proceeds of crime abroad." "Look at this house." "Now there is a guy who stayed for a long time in Italy, probably for 15 years." "He begged, he stole, he made a lot of money and he sent it home and started lending it with interest." "These two houses belong to Marousi and Calistrada." "Calistrada is my first cousin." "They sorted themselves out financially in England and a large part of this fortune was made from stealing." "In England, yes." "Many of Brilliant's neighbours have been lifted out of poverty, but he thinks that the level of criminal greed has gone too far." "He advocates a return to the old days." "They stole because it was a necessity." "They didn't steal to make fortunes or turn it into a business as they do nowadays." "This is something that I disapprove of, that is why I recommend they should set a limit." "They should calm down." "Because the thieving, what they are doing now, is no longer a national problem, it's happening on an international scale." "Now the whole of Europe, the whole of the world talk about the gypsies." "Our children need to study because if they carry on like this, if the new generations growing up now continue in the same way no one will have us." "Our only country won't understand us any more, the Western countries will chase us a way, and then I ask myself and I ask you, brother gypsies," ""Where are we going to go?" "Where?" "Where will we live?"" "As I leave Brilliant behind, I think about the backlash he anticipates if the thieving carries on." "Over the last 20 years, I've seen the anti-gypsy feeling getting stronger, not only in Romania but across Europe." "I have also seen gypsy petty crime turn to serious crime and to international organised crime." "Most gypsies in Romania still live in shacks but there are also many who now live in palaces." "My fear is that without immediate help the gypsy child thieves that I've encountered in my journey, will grow up into hardened criminals and the cycle of abuse and exploitation will spiral out of control." "Where that help would come from remains to be seen."