More than 20 migrants were found hidden in a sweat shop in Spain. According to reports from the Reuters news agency – citing police reports – the migrants were forced to work in unhygienic conditions for two euros per hour. Three people have been arrested.
Italian authorities in Sicily broke up an alleged criminal organization, composed of Pakistanis who exploited fellow Pakistani citizens through a "gangmaster system." According to investigators, the suspects were responsible for serious violence and a murder.
The trafficking of children has increased in Mali, according to UNHCR, due to conflicts, COVID-19 and deteriorating economic conditions. Children are forced to work in mines and to fight for armed groups; many girls are sexually abused. Among the victims: Refugee and migrant children.
Police have arrested eight people and seized over €900,000 in assets in northwestern Italy. The suspects are accused of exploiting migrants workers building luxury yachts. Dozens of Bangladeshi workers were allegedly threatened, beaten, insulted and underpaid.
Tomatoes were known as Ghana’s "red gold." Today however, most of Ghana's markets sell imported products from the EU and China and the tomato processing plants stand empty and abandoned. This is just one of the factors pushing more and more Ghanaians to migrate. Deutsche Welle's documentary "Displaced: Tomatoes and Greed" takes up the story.
Within three days, Libya's coast guard intercepted 935 migrants in the Mediterranean and returned them to Libya. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) once again denounced the longstanding practice in light of the documented abuse and exploitation that await returnees in Libyan detention camps.
An estimated 180,000 Italian and migrant workers risk being exploited by gangmasters in the agricultural sector across Italy, according to the fifth report on 'Agromafie e caporalato'' (agricultural mafias and the gangmaster system) which focuses on exploitation in the agribusiness in the Italy over the past two years. The report was presented by the Flai Cgil union on October 17.
Thousands of migrant workers pick food for Europe’s supermarkets every year in southern Spain. Often without papers or proper contracts, they toil for hours under plastic and the beating sun, and during the COVID-19 pandemic also often lack protective equipment or proper hygiene facilities.
A court has confirmed that the seizure of properties belonging to a farming company in Italy was legal. Its leaders allegedly exploited and abused African farmworkers. The migrants reportedly had to work 12 hours a day, without a day off, for €4.50 an hour. They were also subjected to racist insults and not provided protective gear against the coronavirus.
Italian authorities have uncovered systematic illegal labor exploitation of migrants on a farm in the Milan area. The farm and all its assets have been seized, and seven people are under investigation.
Catania police have arrested ten alleged members of a criminal group suspected of trafficking and sexually exploiting young Nigerian women. The operation called 'Promise Land' led to the arrest of the suspected human traffickers, investigative sources said.
Italian authorities have arrested 52 people who allegedly belonged to an organisation that exploited hundreds of migrant farmworkers, who were called "monkeys" by their gangmaster bosses.