Italy’s highest court rules telling migrants to ‘go away’ is racist

The Court of Cassation ruled on Thursday that telling non-EU foreigners to get out of the country is a form of racial discrimination, The Local reports.

A man in his 40s appealed to the court against his sentence for injuries against another person, which had been increased because of a racial discrimination element.

The man, and another defendant, had approached two non-Italian men in a club in the town of Gallarte in Lombardy, saying to them: “Why are you here, you need to go home.”

The man argued his comments had nothing to do with race but the court found the expression was clearly based on ethnic or religious attributes and was equivalent to racism.

Matteo Salvini, the country’s interior minister, responded to the ruling by saying “Go home, go home!!!” in a Facebook post, above a photo of African men.