US reviews treatment of Italian-Americans

The United States Justice Department says it is investigating the country's wartime treatment of Italian Americans, many of whom were classified as enemy aliens.

In a report to be submitted to Congress later this year, the Justice Department will look at the cases of more than six-hundred thousand residents of Italian descent who faced arrests and internment; many had their homes raided and suffered from work and travelling restrictions.

After a similar review three years ago, Congress voted to compensate Japanese-American victims for their loss of liberty and property during the second world war.

A spokesman for the justice department says the law makes no provision for reparations in the case of Italian Americans. Thousands of people of Italian, Japanese and German ancestry were placed in camps by the federal government during the second world war

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service