The horrific death of an Indian farm worker in Italy has shocked the nation and highlighted the plight of undocumented migrants employed in Italy’s agricultural sector.
Satnam Singh, 31, who had worked as a laborer on a farm near Rome for the past two years without valid papers, had his arm mechanically severed earlier this week.
After the accident, his Italian employer drove the unconscious worker back to Singh’s home and left him in a yard there with his arm in a cardboard box next to him, according to local police. It took two hours for Singh’s wife to call for medical help, and the worker was eventually flown by helicopter to Rome, where he succumbed to his injuries late Wednesday.
The Italian farm owner has since told authorities he panicked after Singh was so badly injured, Italian media reported. Authorities are now investigating him on possible murder charges and other crimes.
Italian Labor Minister Maria Elvira Calderone described Singh’s treatment as a “true act of barbarism” which she said should be appropriately punished.
Activists say the worker’s death is a symptom of systematic abuses in Italian agriculture, which relies heavily on undocumented workers to overcome acute labor shortages.
The country’s largest trade union, the CGIL, estimates that around 230,000 people – or more than a quarter of Italy’s seasonal agricultural workers – are employed without a valid employment contract. Most of them are foreigners who are staying in the country illegally.
After Singh’s death, Maria Grazia Gabrielli, a member of the CGIL secretariat, described migrant workers in Italy’s agricultural sector as “slaves of today’s society”. They are often subjected to severe exploitation, she said, with “starvation wages, unsafe, inhumane work rhythms and conditions (and) psychological and physical violence”.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who came to power nearly two years ago on a promise to crack down on illegal immigrants, has struggled to stem the influx of refugees from the Mediterranean while trying to expand legal immigration opportunities and increasing the annual quota for work visas to meet growing demand from businesses.
Earlier this month, however, Meloni complained that the work visa lottery system was being abused by Italian criminal gangs to bring in foreign migrants who never sign a work contract and may never do the work for which they were granted a residence permit.
“Only a very small percentage of foreigners who received a work visa actually signed a work contract,” Meloni said. Mafia groups had “infiltrated” the process to help foreigners enter Italy, she said.
Confagricoltura, one of Italy’s most influential agricultural associations, said that only about 30 percent of the workers selected through the lottery process actually enter the country, leading to a persistent labor shortage.
“Unfortunately, the number of workers who actually arrive on time is small compared to the requests,” said Roberto Caponi, director of Confagricoltura and responsible for labor and social policy. “When farms have a shortage of workers and need to do a specific job, some of them may be tempted to solve the problem with illegal workers.”
