The Maltese government has announced the creation of a special unit to fight the illegal exploitation of non-EU workers in the Maltese archipelago, which is on the rise due to the country's economic boom.
Humus is a service that wants to make farm work more sustainable and ethical in the Cuneo region in Italy. It allows different agriculture businesses to "share" workers. The goal is to provide year-round employment to workers, while firms only hire them seasonally.
A group of Italian doctors launched an appeal in the British Medical Journal to stop the exploitation of migrants who work in Italian farming. The doctors said the migrants are field slaves who allow for Italian tomatoes to be sold at low prices worldwide year-round.
In Germany, there are more migrants working in temporary jobs as subcontractors than in secure employment. Some say this is a good thing, because it means migrants are able to get a foot in the door of the job market. But are there also downsides to temporary agency work?
A report by the German Institute for Human Rights says German labor laws are utterly inadequate in protecting foreign workers' rights. Foreign laborers are often forced into hardships out of fear of losing their jobs.
A project titled "Sfruttazero" (Zero Exploitation) in Italy's southern city of Bari produces tomato sauce that is completely free from exploitation of migrant farm workers. The project has been active for five years and is run by the Solidaria association.
The Puglia area of Salento is experimenting a new and free system to house seasonal migrant farm workers to protect them from the gang-masters system, said the region's governor, Michele Emiliano.
Some 15,000 people are involved in the practice of subjecting migrants to exploitation with 'gang masters' in Italy. The individuals are part of a hierarchy that goes from drivers up to the bosses and are linked to organized crime groups specializing in human trafficking.
A protest in Huelva in southern Spain put a spotlight on the dire conditions of migrant farmers in the Spanish farming business. The problem is widespread: Hundreds of migrant women working in the farming sector suffer abuses - not only in Spain, but also in Italy and Morocco, as an investigative report revealed.
A total of 430,000 farm workers are exposed to exploitation by gang masters, according to a recent report published by the observatory Rizzotto. In addition, 132,000 of them are socially vulnerable. Up to 39 percent of farm workers are hired illegally, according to the report.
There are about 430,000 undocumented workers in Italy's agricultural sector, 100,000 of whom are victims of exploitation, according to a recent Oxfam Italy report titled "Maturi Per Cambiamento" (Ripe for Change).
Sicilian police has arrested two men accused of extreme exploitation of migrant workers on Thursday. The suspects allegedly paid workers just three euros an hour to work in the fields for up to 12 hours a day.