Blueberries, redcurrants, cloud berries. Sweden’s forests are full of these tiny jewels growing wild, but the harvest and sorting is hard work. A Deutsche Welle documentary has lifted the lid on the thousands of mostly Thai migrant workers who suffer difficult conditions for the ‘privilege’ of being allowed to work at this job every year.
The Region of Puglia in southern Italy announced it will provide an additional €500,000 to ensure drinking water is supplied to informal migrant farm worker settlements in the region.
Three unions in the Italian city of Catania have set up two hotlines to report cases of exploitation of day laborers and gangmastering. Many farmworkers in the region are migrants.
Migrants at the tent camp of San Ferdinando in the southern province of Reggio Calabria on October 17 hurled stones at police officers guarding the area after the tent camp was declared a ''red zone'' by the Calabrian regional government. 15 residents had earlier tested positive for COVID-19.
The Italian farmers association Coldiretti said Monday that an interior ministry decree will make it possible for 18,000 non-EU seasonal workers to enter Italy. The association called it an "important measure for work in the fields in autumn."
Agricultural association Coldiretti has announced that it is opening a migrant hosting center near the southern Italian city of Potenza. The center will host over 200 seasonal workers inside a facility that is "dignified and respectful of healthcare norms," the farmers' association said.
At Zaatari camp in Jordan, refugees are growing herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers... even though the camp is located in the desert, water is scarce and the land is infertile. Their solution involves recycling old mattresses...
An Italian amnesty for workers employed 'off the books', including irregular migrants, has attracted more than 207,000 applications. Most, however, came from Italians rather than migrants. Meanwhile, close to 13,000 migrants applied for a six-month extension to their stay permit linked to the amnesty.
The head of the local healthcare authority of Italy's southern city Foggia has decided to set up a mobile unit in the Borgo Mezzanone shantytown, inhabited by migrant day laborers, for COVID-19 testing after some of those living there tested positive for the virus.
An art installation in Foggia will commemorate the 16 migrant farmworkers who died in two road accidents in August 2018 in the countryside near the southern city.
Thousands of Moroccan seasonal workers were trapped in southern Spain with no work and no pay because of the coronavirus pandemic. Now they are finally heading home.
Thousands of migrant strawberry pickers from Morocco are trapped in Spain. Local groups call it a humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, companies are trying to end their dependence on Moroccan workers.