Roughly 370,000 foreign workers are legally employed in the agriculture sector in Italy. That's more than one fourth of all farmworkers. The government has announced a new plan to counter labor exploitation in agriculture.
Migrants exploited by their fellow countrymen in northern Italy were paid three euros per hour for 11-hour days to prune vines and harvest grapes, according to an investigation by carabinieri in Venice, Padua, and Rovigo. The probe led to four being placed under house arrest on Wednesday.
Carabinieri police have arrested the owners of two agricultural companies in southern Italy. The arrests were carried out as part of a sweeping operation against the 'caporalato' gangmaster system, investigative sources said.
Half of the agricultural workforce in Italy is made up of migrants. Those are the findings from the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food. “Migrant workers are being exploited by the Italian food system,” said Elver during a visit to Italy last week.
Two Italian union activists and a journalist were reportedly assaulted and threatened in Viterbo, central Italy. They were carrying out an awareness campaign for migrant workers against illegal gangmastering, known in Italian as 'caporalato'.
Many migrant farmworkers in the Matera region in Italy suffer from diseases linked to poor working and living conditions, and lack sufficient access to public healthcare, Doctors Without Borders says in a new report.
The Italian minister for agriculture Teresa Bellanova said an inter-ministerial plan will be presented in January to fight labor exploitation in the agriculture sector. She said it would include a platform allowing business owners to find the workers with the desired qualifications.
Italian authorities say they have dismantled a criminal ring exploiting migrant farm workers in the area of Gioia Tauro, in the southern region of Calabria. The migrants were forced to work for up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and were paid between two and three euros per hour, investigators said.
According to the Italian Farmers' Association, foreigners make up over one third of the 900,000 agricultural workers in Italy. The association has been looking at improving its members’ migratory policies and allow for a more stable hiring culture in agriculture. The farmers’ association is also hoping to fight some illegal practices particularly prevalent across southern Italy.
A medical charity found that only 44% of foreign farmworkers it treated in the southern Italian area of Foggia had a regular job contract.
An Italian farmer has been reported to the police on charges of exploiting a young man from Mali. The migrant reportedly had to live in a cement cube measuring only a few square meters, without a proper bathroom.
An Italian farmer has been arrested for shooting at migrant farmworkers to get them to work faster and more. The workers had been threatened repeatedly, an investigation found.