A/50/476 English Page 29 be made of reports that anti-Semitic articles continue to appear in local newspapers and that more than five Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated. 48/ G. Discrimination against immigrants and migrant workers 98. On 27 December 1994, at Torvaianica, Italy, a 15-year-old girl was accidentally killed by a car in which four intoxicated Moroccans were riding. The following day, a Moroccan was attacked with a knife by an Italian in a bus. Another was knocked off his motorcycle and beaten up by four Italians. On 1 January 1995 a Moroccan was wounded by a bullet and an Indian stabbed. These acts of aggression seem to testify to the growth of anti-immigrant sentiment in Italy. 49/ 99. Once a country of emigration, Italy is today host to some 1.5 million workers, both legal and illegal, from Africa and Eastern Europe, and its population is not accepting of their presence. The response of the coalition Government in power at the time, which included Ministers belonging to the National Alliance, with neo-Fascist leanings, was to propose, like other European countries, that immigration be sharply curtailed. 100. In Asia, Japan and the newly industrialized countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Republic of Korea) are currently facing an unprecedented influx of migrant workers. The number of transregional immigrants in Asia is estimated today at 2 million, as compared with 200,000 in 1980. 50/ The receiving countries benefit from cheap labour, but the presence of these migrants is not always welcome. 101. In Malaysia, migrants are reportedly considered to be sources of disease and crime. In the Republic of Korea, people complain about their presence and in Japan extreme right-wing groups have put up xenophobic signs in parks to which foreigners go in large numbers. Often, the presence of migrants is depicted as a threat to national security. The Republic of Korea has vowed to expel all illegal aliens by 1999 at the latest. 51/ 102. The tendency to blame foreigners for domestic problems is therefore assuming world-wide proportions. 103. Four fifths of the immigrant population in Europe is concentrated in six countries (Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) and among that population there are many who have been victims of racist behaviour and discrimination. In Germany, for example, Turkish residents continue to be the main victims of xenophobic acts. 104. In several countries where the number of immigrant workers is relatively large, businesses refuse to hire foreigners on a variety of pretexts: "the employees will not accept foreigners or persons of colour"; "the public image of the company would suffer". Employers are not required to give reasons for hiring or rejecting job applicants and it is thus easy, in the absence of any tangible proof, to evade any accusation of unlawful discrimination. /...