Italy: Unions & migrant community protest "barbaric exploitation" after Indian farmworker left to die with severed arm
In June 2024, an Indian farmworker died after he was left on a road by his employer following a workplace injury that severed his arm. The worker was employed on a farm in Latina, near Rome, and had been working there for two years. He was undocumented and allegedly worked for only EUR 5 an hour without a legal work contract.
The employer, farm owner Antonello Lovato, is now under investigation for manslaughter, violations of workplace safety regulations, and failure to provide aid. Lovato’s family lawyer told Reuters Lovato was waiting for the charges to be formalised to defend himself.
Adding to the horror of the accident is the fact that, instead of being rescued, the Indian farm worker was dumped near his home…He was left on the road like a bag of rags, like a sack of rubbish … despite his wife begging [the employer] to take him to hospital. Here we are not only faced with a serious workplace accident, which in itself is already alarming, we are faced with barbaric exploitation. Enough nowLaura Hardeep Kaur, General Secretary, Frosinone-Latina unit of the Flai Cgil union
Latina has a large Indian migrant worker population. The ‘caporalato’ system, where ‘gangmasters’ hire workers who are often undocumented, has led to allegations of highly exploitative working conditions.
Following the worker's death, several trade unions and the Indian community in Latina have called for protests, including a two hour strike to demand “dignity and respect for the health and safety of workers”. The Indian migrant community will demonstrate in memory of the worker on June 25th. Unions have also organised a fundraiser for the worker’s family.
Union leader Maria Garzia Gabrielli has called the incidenet one of “unprecedented brutality” and has emphasised the precarity experienced by undocumented migrants in the country.
Trade unions have also met with the Italian government to discuss changes required to better protect migrant farmworkers in the future.
The owner of the farm where the worker was employed had been arrested, as of July.