The first "anti-gangmastering" help desk was presented in Italy, aimed at citizens of third countries who are victims or potential victims of labor exploitation in the country. The help desk will provide legal, trade union and administrative support.
A Milan court has convicted 10 members of an organization running a "system" that forged documents in order to gain management rights of reception facilities for hundreds of migrants. A woman was sentenced to 11 years in prison, the highest jail term handed down in the trial.
A massive police operation against the Nigerian mafia in Italy that was carried out in 14 provinces led to the arrests of 30 foreign citizens. The leader of the organization, who arrived on a migrant boat from Libya in 2014, was also caught.
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.
A Milan court has placed the Uber Italy company in temporary receivership for allegedly exploiting the delivery riders of its Uber Eats service, many of them migrants. Uber Italy is the Italian affiliate of the US group that offers services including peer-to-peer ridesharing and food delivery.
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.
An Italian court has convicted 6 men from Nigeria in the gang rape case at Bari migrant center in southern Italy. The prison terms range between 5 and 9 years for gang-raping a 25-year-old.
Italian authorities busted two Nigerian mafia groups operating in Italy and abroad to traffic migrants. Investigators said that the groups forced women into sex work.
Italy's national anti-mafia and anti-terrorism prosecutor Federico Cafiero de Raho has said that African criminal organizations are dangerous and are controling migration from Libya to Europe. He claimed that while the Nigerian mafia is currently the strongest, various organizations work together in a sort of consortium.
In the birthplace of the mafia, its tentacles have moved beyond drug dealing and white collar crime to taking control of Italy's farmland and its workers. Megan Williams travelled to one area south of Rome where a community of Sikh agricultural workers, long exploited and even enslaved by criminal groups, and an Italian activist, are fighting back.
Palermo Mayor Leoluca Orlando said the Sicilian capital is no longer the capital of the mafia and it now seeks to be known as the capital for migrant rights and welcoming. In recent weeks, Orlando has led a revolt of Italian mayors against the Salvini security decree.
The Italian authorities have arrested 15 individuals on charges of terrorism and aiding and abetting clandestine immigration to Italy. They allegedly belong to a criminal organization that offered journeys on fast dinghies from Tunisia to Sicily for 2,500 euros.