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.
Three associations in Italy have called on authorities to hire foreign doctors and nurses with regular Italian work permits. The associations argued it's illegitimate to exclude foreign doctors from civil service exams during the coronavirus pandemic.
Three unions in the Italian city of Catania have set up two hotlines to report cases of exploitation of day laborers and gangmastering. Many farmworkers in the region are migrants.
Since a new decree went into effect in Italy this summer, 220,000 migrants have applied to get temporary papers, according to Deputy Interior Minister Matteo Mauri. Meanwhile, he also said that the exploitation of undocumented farmworkers in the Foggia region had to be stopped.
The Italian trade unions CGIL, CISL and UIL have criticized the proposal for a new pact on migration and asylum presented by the European Commission, underscoring that the initiative ''upholds the mainly security-based approach'' on migration.
Lebanon is abolishing its sponsorship system for domestic workers, which many have likened to slavery. According to local media, the decision is "an enormous step" in the fight for human rights.
An NGO based in the northern Italian region of Lombardy has rescued two migrants who were exploited by gangmasters. Kali, a 23-year-old Indian man, and Irina, a 27-year-old Romanian woman, became victims of gangmasters after they migrated to Italy. They were aided by ''Lule,'' an organization in Lombardy that helps victims like them.
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.
A move by the Italian government set to provide thousands of undocumented farm workers and home carers with legal papers is failing to meet its goal of freeing people from criminal and exploitative practices.
The labor exploitation of migrant farmworkers in Piana di Gioia Tauro, in Italy's southern region of Calabria, continues amid conditions aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, medical aid organization MEDU claims in a new report.
The IOM is offering an information service for migrants who may be particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Be that because their jobs have disappeared, they can't pay their rent or they find themselves homeless or ill. The information service is currently available in eight languages with one more coming soon.
A UN special rapporteur has called out the "shocking abuse" of migrants picking strawberries in Spain. The migrants are mainly Moroccan women, who come in on seasonal visas to carry out the work. Their treatment has long been criticized by human rights groups working in the field of migrant rights.