Italian newspaper Il Tempo published on Wednesday an open letter sent by the Romanian Ambassador to Rome in reaction to an article published on Tuesday, which indiscriminately calls Romanians “a gang of criminals” involved in prostitution, acts of violence and trafficking.

The letter describes that article as malevolent and offensive as it does not describe a person or a small group of Romanians, but a whole community - that of all Romanians working in Italy.

And the letter says the author of the article manipulated official statistics that show the level of criminality among Romanians in Italy is much lower than reported in the newspaper.

And it says the Romanian community in Italy should be hailed for its participation to the economic development of the EU country and for its good integration with the local people.