To fill the gap of trained seasonal foreign workers to harvest its crops, Italy has opened corridors for non-EU farmworkers who have had a work contract with Italian firms for years. Carrying over 100 farmworkers from Morocco, the first charter flight arrived in Italy on Thursday.
Migrant farmworkers employed in Italy's agricultural sector have thanked the Italian government for passing an amnesty that will give them the chance to apply for a short-term stay permit. Some, however, note that a six-month temporary permit makes it impossible for them to plan for the future.
The amnesty to regularize undocumented workers came as part of a detailed "relaunch decree" from the Italian government totaling €55 billion. Here we break down who might be eligible and how you can apply.
Italy's governing coalition parties have finally agreed to introducing changes to employment permits for migrants in the country. The four coalition parties hope the measures will benefit migrants as well as help sectors hit by the coronavirus.
"Tens of thousands" of undocumented workers, migrants among them, could be falling through the cracks in Portugal. Unable to access social help, because of their lack of a legal work contract, these people are falling deeper into poverty as the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are felt.
The Italian interior minister expressed openness to legalizing migrant workers in the country, pointing out however that it would not involve "600,000 people" indicated in estimates but rather "those who are needed and with rules".
After numerous appeals from union organizations, MPs, and even members of the government, Italy is considering legalizing migrant workers, but the opposition is criticizing the possibility.
The Castel Volturno Solidale network has launched a call to help support the Italian and migrant population in the Castel Volturno area, which has been made even more economically precarious due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A fundraising campaign has been started through a Caritas bank account.
In Tajoura, a suburb of the Libyan capital Tripoli, migrants from sub-Sahara Africa line the sides of the streets in the hopes of being hired as day laborers. Locals often stop here to offer them a job for a day or two, but the migrants are often treated badly, they told us.
Italian authorities have reported six Pakistani citizens in Italy accused of exploiting at least 70 workers, who were given meager wages and forced to work in unseemly conditions to deliver advertising materials door to door.
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.
A group of 25 Malians without papers, who had been illegally employed on a big building site in Paris in 2016, have each been awarded €34,000 in damages, with interest, for "systematic racial discrimination" by a French employment tribunal.