28 April 2020

Italy is now eyeing easing the lockdown, but as it was experiencing one of the world's deadliest coronavirus epidemics, immigrant caregivers were particularly vulnerable...

Caring for the elderly is a demanding, poorly paid, job, largely carried out by women from Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine, Romania and Moldova.

"According to our report, 58 percent of domestic workers are working irregularly, without a proper contract," said Massimo De Luca, a lawyer at the Osservatorio.

Amid the pandemic, without any legal protection, many have lost their income...

"Right now caregivers lack any protection," said Alfonso Angrisani, who heads Alec (Association of non-EU and community workers), a group advocating for migrant workers' rights which has set up a hotline for domestic workers in difficulties. "We're getting so many calls from people who don't know what to do."