(Latina) Thousands of Indian farm workers protested Tuesday to demand justice and an end to “slavery” in Italy after the tragic death of a worker, which highlighted the brutal exploitation of undocumented migrants .
Satnam Singh, a 31-year-old illegal worker, died last week after having his arm torn off by a machine. His employer abandoned him by the side of the road, with his severed limb.
“He was thrown out like a dog. There is exploitation, we suffer from it every day, it must stop,” said Gurmukh Singh, leader of the Indian community in the Lazio region of central Italy.
“We come here to work, not to die,” he told AFP.
Children held colorful signs reading “Justice for Satnam Singh” as the procession wound through the streets of Latina, a town in a rural area south of Rome that is home to tens of thousands of Indian workers.
The tragic death of Satnam Singh, which remains under investigation, has reignited debate on the peninsula about tackling systemic abuses in the agricultural sector, where the use of undocumented workers and their exploitation by bosses Shameless clans are commonplace.
“Satnam died in a day, I die every day. Because I too am a victim of work,” confides Parambar Singh, himself seriously injured in the eye during a work accident.
“My boss said he couldn’t take me to the hospital because I didn’t have a contract,” says the 33-year-old, who has since struggled to work. “I have been waiting for justice for 10 months.”
Workers are paid an average of 20 euros per day for 14 hours of work, according to Osservatorio Placido Rizzotto, which analyzes the working conditions of workers in the agricultural sector.
Far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has sought to reduce the number of undocumented migrants in Italy, while expanding legal migration routes for non-EU workers to combat labour shortages.
But according to the agro-industrial association Confagricoltura, only 30% of visa workers actually travel to Italy, leaving an insufficient workforce to meet farmers’ needs.
In early June, Meloni accused organized crime networks of exploiting Italy’s visa system to smuggle in irregular migrants.
Italian financial police have identified nearly 60,000 undocumented workers between January 2023 and June 2024.
But Italy’s largest union, CGIL, estimates that up to 230,000 people, or more than a quarter of the country’s seasonal agricultural workers, do not have a contract.
While some are Italian, most are foreigners. Women are particularly bad off: they earn even less than their male counterparts and are sometimes victims of sexual exploitation, the report says.
“We all need regular employment contracts to avoid being trapped in this slavery,” insists Kaur Akveer, 37, among a group of women dressed in colorful saris walking behind officials.
“Satnam was like my brother. He must be the last Indian to die,” she concluded.