The outfit touched a nerve as Carnival celebrations got under way in Italy, where it is common custom for schoolchildren to wear fancy dress during the pre-Lenten festivities that run through February 9. The “Wartime Refugee” costume was was displayed for sale online alongside a host of other fancy dress options, like Batman and Elsa from Walt Disney’s animated film “Frozen.”

Complaints that children might consider dressing up as refugees instead of Pinocchio or princesses poured in after an article denouncing the costume appeared in the Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana.

“Who would have thought a British company would propose on Amazon.it a product that, for little more than 24 euros, would have offended the dignity of thousands of persons in the Carnival period?” wrote Andrea Ferrari.

Amazon.it quickly removed the item from its online offerings, with its press office noting they were of “bad taste” and presented “in an offensive way,” according to Italian media reports.

But in the UK, a variety of different companies sell party packs of historical period re-enactment fancy dress for 1940s Wartime Britain (including a range of children’s evacuee costumes) for VE celebrations, school plays or other themed events. “Fancy Me Limited”, the Rugby-based fancy dress retailer that had listed the controversial costume for sale in Italy, did not return requests by the Telegraph for comment.

Mr. Forti, whose charity division operates soup kitchens and help centres at a number of migrant reception entry points across Italy, admitted that there was heightened sensitivity in his organization, where volunteers are “living out this drama in the field and seeing children dying every day.” But he maintained that even if the historical costume has been in circulation for some time, it was now insensitive in today’s context.

“That reality for children was extremely traumatic in World War I and World War II, just as it is very painful for the millions of people experiencing it today,” he said. “I think there are plenty of other nice costumes for kids out there.”