Regional authorities in southern Italy have taken steps to prevent labor exploitation amid widespread reports of abuse of workers in the agricultural sector. A local trade union says an MoU signed last week aims to bring migrant workers "from exploitative conditions to legality."
THIS summer Italy is again witnessing high numbers of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea in search of a better life.
While those arriving to the country’s shores are scapegoated, accused of wanting to abuse the system and since the outbreak of Covid-19, spreading the virus, many of those already on Italian soil are subjected to exploitation in the country’s agricultural fields, ignored by politicians and far from the eyes and hearts of ordinary citizens, often mostly concerned about getting fresh produce to their kitchen tables at bargain prices.
The research institute Osservatorio Placido Rizzotto, found that between October 2018 and October 2020 around 180,000 farmworkers in Italy were at risk of being recruited under the caporalato system, an illegal organised network which dominates the recruitment and management of workers and benefits from their exploitation.