Working Up to Dozens of Hours and Not Getting Worthy Payments, The Story of Migrants being Slaves in Italy become the World's Attention

Mia

Tuesday, May 05, 2020 | 10:34 pm

(Working Tens of Hours and Not Getting Worth the Pay, The Story of Migrants Becoming Slaves in Italy the World's Attention

News24xx.com -

In the interior of perfect Italian vineyards and turquoise beaches in the southern Puglia region of Sierra Leone, 32-year-old Ibrahim Bah woke up in a shanty town full of cardboard and wooden shacks. For 12 hours a day, he is picking asparagus. When he is paid the full amount, he earns 3.50 euros ($ 3.83) per hour - 42 euros ($ 45.91) a day.

"It's like slavery," Bah, an undocumented migrant worker, told Al Jazeera by telephone. "What I want is to have a legal job, pay taxes, and be an independent person."

This previously unimaginable reality could happen immediately amid a global virus crisis, which has made Europe grapple with the prospect of food scarcity because its agricultural sector is in decline. The Italian government is considering whether to regulate some undocumented migrants, who are already working in the country's agriculture and animal husbandry sector.

According to the Italian Institute of International Political Studies (ISPI), there are up to 600,000 undocumented migrants. "The problem we face is harvesting," Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese said last week. "We have to release what is on the black market, also for security issues."

Apart from workers from Africa, Eastern Europeans also work in the Italian fields.

At the start of the Italian corona virus epidemic, which has so far killed nearly 30,000 people, people from countries like Romania returned home, risking financial instability as they sought to protect their health.

And when the asparagus plant grows tall, Italian farmers are trying desperately to fill the gap left by more than 200,000 seasonal workers. Most temporary workers usually come from Eastern Europe and many are unable to travel due to lock restrictions, according to the country's largest agricultural association Coldiretti.

As a result, Italian agriculture risks losing more than 25 percent of the harvest, according to Coldiretti. In recent weeks, other Western European countries including Britain and Germany, faced with a similar crisis, have flown Eastern European workers to take care of their agriculture. Bah lives in Borgo Mezzanone, a rural ghetto that houses migrants like him whose petition for asylum is rejected and others hope that the process will succeed.

By law, they do not have the right to work and are therefore more likely to be exploited, paid below the minimum wage of around 50 euros ($ 55) for 6.5 hours a day. Working on agriculture, whether documented or not, is often the only way for people like the Bah to make a living, despite the coronavirus crisis.

"I am afraid of being infected, but how can I survive if I stay at home?" Bah said.

Rights groups and trade unions urged the government to act in settlements such as the Bah which lacked water and sanitation, warning they could easily become coronavirus hotspots. Legalizing these workers will reduce health risks and secure the harvest.

This will also limit the extent to which undocumented migrants are exploited under the "Caporalato" system, which benefits from the irregular work of low-paid agricultural workers.

"Exploitation arises in situations of deviation," said Claudia Merlino, managing director of the Italian Farmers Confederation (CIA), who submitted to the government a proposal for an amnesty.

"Managing migrants is not only important to deal with the current emergency, but also guarantees opportunities for migrants in the long run" because they will be able to establish and then maintain working relationships with employers.

There are around 400,000 migrant workers in the Italian agricultural sector. It is unclear exactly how many are undocumented, but the number is understood to be thousands. The CGIL-FLAI farmer union report estimates that as part of the black market, 16.5 percent do not enjoy labor rights and 38.7 percent receive wages below the tariffs stipulated in collective bargaining agreements.

Between 160,000-180,000 foreign workers live in slums, according to Jean-Rene Bilongo, head of migration and inequality policy in the union.

"That number increased after Salvini's decree when the masses entered these confined spaces," Bilongo said, referring to the 2018 security bill heralded by former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini who cracked down on migration.

Since it was implemented, the rate at which asylum seeker applications were rejected rose from 55 to 80 percent, according to ISPI. Amnesty under consideration will guarantee temporary residence permits for those who can prove past, present or future work commitments. However, while a residence permit will make migrants less vulnerable before the law, it does not have to be translated into a less exploitative work environment.

Some employers do not guarantee regular and fair wages for workers, regardless of whether workers have formal contracts or not, said Noratangelo, who provides support to workers.

"Accessing dignified salaries will open the way for a real integration process," said Notarangelo.

Some farmers exploit the system by "giving" several hours of crop picking to family members or acquaintances in their records.

These family members or acquaintances can then declare "stolen" working hours to the national social security agency (INPS) to get state funds, such as welfare benefits, even though they have never set foot on the ground. INPS estimates that around 50,000 "fake workers" may have been registered through such fraud in the agricultural sector, totaling around 400 million euros ($ 437 million).

Bah said his salary often showed reduced working hours, even though his days stretched from 4 am to 6 pm.

"What can I do? I cannot report to the police. I have no rights, no evidence. But I prefer to go to work so that I will not steal, sell drugs, or rob. That is why I do this job, "Bah said.

Looking further ahead at the supply chain, there is concern that even if undocumented workers, price processors and supermarkets pay fruits and vegetables from Italy - and other European countries, will not rise enough to ensure their farmers can compensate workers them correctly.

An Oxfam report said prices paid by Finland's largest wholesale retailer, S Group, to suppliers of private label tomato products in Italy fell by 15-25 percent between 2014 and 2018.

Meanwhile, Italian tomato processors paid farmers 10 percent less for their raw tomatoes, while the collective agreement rate for wages increased by around 8 percent. Oxfam said prices in the chain had been "separate from ethical production costs", adding that this dynamic increase was likely producers would continue to exploit workers. "Regulatory will be a positive step, but it is only an improvement," said Cesare Fermi, director of the NGO migration program INTERSOS.

"Farmers are suffocated by the current economic system based on large-scale distribution, and migrants are the victims."

NEWS24XX.COM/MIA