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.
Britain likes to pride itself on high standards of health and safety in the workplace. But cuts to the national Health and Safety Executive (HSE) budget and legislation surrounding regulations mean the lowest paid and most precariously employed are among those most at risk, and often that means migrants.
The H&M Group, known in many parts of the world for its fast-fashion clothing, has pledged to promote the ethical recruitment and protection of migrant workers in global supply chains. The multinational company last week signed a memorandum of understanding with UN agency International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Over the past eight years, Italy has granted the lowest number of work permits to foreigners in the European Union. This has contributed to an increase in illegal immigration, said representatives from the Foundation Leone Moressa during a recent hearing in the Italian Lower House.
Migrant workers, mostly from Africa, were being exploited by a shoe company in Empoli, according to police. They reportedly had to work up to 10 hours a day and were paid as little as 1.28 euros per hour.
Italian labor union CGIL has filed a lawsuit with 50 migrants. They want the state to refund the migrants because they had to pay an additional tax when applying for a residency permit.
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.
Italian authorities have arrested six people who allegedly exploited hundreds of migrant workers in the southern Italian region of Basilicata. Another 19 people are being investigated for migrant labor exploitation.
Fifteen Afghan nationals recently won legal recourse and were granted French residency permits after having worked for the French armed forces in Afghanistan. Upon their arrival in France this summer they have been left to fend for themselves, without any social assistance.
The United Nations want Italy to do more to prevent the exploitation of migrant farmworkers and to dismantle the illegal labor system known as "caporalato."
Since June 11, around 40 undocumented migrant workers, hired to work for the courier delivery firm Chronopost, have been on strike outside the company’s facility in Alfortville, in the Paris suburbs. They say their working conditions are unacceptable and that the French company is taking advantage of their status to, in the words of one worker, “treat us like slaves.”