The association Cidis is promoting a project in the area around the southern city of Caserta, in Campania, to provide bus rides to immigrant farmworkers. The farmhands get free transportation to the fields as part of efforts to fight the gangmaster system.
An investigation in Tuscany has found that three agricultural firms allegedly made hundreds of both Italian and foreign laborers work for up to 16 hours a day, paying them €2.50 per hour.
The Puglia region has approved funding worth €158,000 to build a temporary guesthouse for some 120 foreign seasonal farmworkers who will be employed for the cherry harvest season.
Europe's demand for fruit has turned Portugal's Alentejo region into a goldmine for landowners and corporations. Their laborers are mostly Asians hoping for a better life. But they pay a high price.
Italian Labor Minister Andrea Orlando has warned against the risk of a new form of exploitation of migrant farmworkers in Italy, a "digital gang-master system." He reiterated that the government is committed to fight the exploitation of foreign workers in the agricultural sector.
An organization has been set up in the town of Caserta in southern Italy to fight against labor exploitation in agriculture. It will collect reports and promote initiatives for worker protection.
Northeastern Syria is experiencing its worst drought in nearly 70 years, with rising temperatures and erratic weather exacerbated by tensions with Turkey.
Seasonal migrant farmworkers in the San Ferdinando tent city in Calabria have been 'left to their own devices, without power or water,' according to two Italian unions. They called on local authorities to ensure security and humane living conditions at the camp.
At the end of 2020, 357,768 workers in Italian fields had been born abroad out of 900,000 total in the sector. The figure shows how important foreign manpower has become in Italy, accounting for a third of the total number of people working in agriculture.
A 30-year-old Ivorian citizen has filed a lawsuit at the European Court of Human Rights; asking for Italy to be condemned over the "inhuman and degrading conditions" in which he has been forced to live whilst working on the harvest.
Without an extension of stay permits for foreign seasonal workers, the harvest season is at risk, the organization of Italian agricultural producers, Coldiretti, has warned.
An app has been launched in Italy's southeastern city of Foggia for agricultural workers in rural areas nearby to reserve a place on a free bus. It will also help to counter labor exploitation.