By Meryl Sebastian, BBC News, Kochi
File photo. Members of the Indian community protest along with unions of agriculture workers in Rome on 25 June 2024 about the treatment of a farm labourer. Photo: AFP
Dozens of Indian farm labourers have been freed from slave-like working conditions in northern Italy, police have said.
The 33 workers were lured to Italy on the promise of jobs and a better future by two fellow Indian nationals, police say.
But instead, they were allegedly forced to work more than 10 hours a day, seven days a week for a tiny wage which was used to pay off debts to the alleged gangmasters.
The two men - who were found with approximately US$545,300 - have been arrested.
The exploitation of farmhands - both Italian and migrant - in Italy is a well-known issue. Thousands of people work in fields, vineyards and greenhouses dotted across the country, often without contracts and in highly dangerous conditions.
Just last month, an Indian fruit picker died after his arm was severed in a work accident.
The man had allegedly been left on the side of the road following the accident, which also left his legs crushed.
His employer is now under investigation for criminal negligence and manslaughter.
The 33 men rescued by police in the Province of Verona had paid €17,000 or 1.5m rupees each in return for seasonal work permits and jobs, according to a police statement sent to the BBC.
To raise the funds, police said, some pawned their family assets, while others borrowed the money from their employers.
But they were only paid €4 per hour for their 10 to 12-hour days, with that sum settling any debt owed.
Their passports were also confiscated as soon as they arrived in Italy and they were banned from leaving their "dilapidated" apartments.
"Every morning, the workers piled into vehicles covered in tarpaulin where they hid among boxes of vegetables until they reached the Verona countryside for work," the police statement said.
Searches of their apartments showed the workers were "forced to live in precarious and degrading conditions" and "in total violation of health and hygiene regulations", it added.
The rescued workers have received their passports back and are being helped by social services and a migration organisation to relocate to safer housing and working conditions.
The two alleged gangmasters are now facing charges related to exploitation and slavery, police told Reuters news agency.
Undocumented labourers across Italy are often subject to a system known as "caporalato" - a gangmaster system which sees middlemen illegally hiring labourers who are then forced to work for very low salaries. Even workers with regular papers are often paid well below the legal wage.
Almost a quarter of the agricultural workforce in Italy in 2018 was employed under this method, according to a study by the Italian National Institute of Statistics. The practice also affects workers in the service industry and building sectors.
It was outlawed in Italy in 2016 after an Italian woman died of a heart attack after working 12-hour shifts picking and sorting grapes, for which she was paid €27 a day.
- BBC