brings to the center of social and political life the labor exploitation of immigrants and the role of criminal human trafficking networks (trafficking) in the agricultural sector.
The Chronicle of Horror
The murder took place on Monday (01/06), at a gas station in Amendolara. The four dead – three Afghans and one Pakistani – were all under the age of 30 and were working in the strawberry harvest. They were all burned alive, local police chief Antonio Borrelli told ANSA news agency, and CCTV footage showed two men throwing flammable material at the vehicle the victims were in and blocking the doors to ensure there was no escape route. The fifth passenger, a 35-year-old man of Afghan origin, managed to escape the carnage, he escaped by breaking the windows of the car in time and has burns all over his body. Two men of Pakistani origin have been arrested and are being held on suspicion of serial murder, with Castrovillari prosecutor Alessandro D’Alessio calling it an “incident of unheard of brutality”.
Speaking on RAI television, the survivor did not hesitate to refer to the perpetrators, whom he linked to criminal networks in their country of origin. He described a regime of constant terror from the alleged perpetrators, including physical attacks, armed threats and forced unpaid labour. “They didn’t give us money. They gave us food – bread and potatoes – and a house to stay. But no money,” said the Afghan survivor, among other things, stressing that they were the ones asking for money for the transport, which the victims did not want to give. And he added that the heinous crime was intended to make it clear to the land workers of the wider area that their orders are not open to question.
Mafias
The latest incident comes as a grim reminder of the situation in much of Italy, which is dominated by the illegal labor brokering system known by the acronym caporalato. This is a model in which intermediaries have a key role, who in this case undertake the recruitment and management of human resources on behalf of third parties (businesses or employers). This particular model is based on the simple principle of deception, promising well-paid jobs in the agricultural sector for migrant workers regardless of legal status. The chief “superintendent” then keeps most of the daily wage, often charging the victims with additional expenses (accommodation, transportation to and from work sites). When workers ask for back wages, they are met with brutal violence.
This is not an Italian phenomenon, since the same criminal system, with its variations, finds applications in other countries as well. The Greek case of Manolada in 2013, when Greek foremen shot land workers from Bangladesh who were claiming their earnings, is typical but not unique, since there are also many complaints in Spain. A recent Economist report highlighted the example of Almeria, where many migrants live in a “sea” of greenhouses, in makeshift structures made of the same plastic that covers crops.
The notable difference in Italy, however, concerns the role played by Italy’s traditional organized crime (Cosa Nostra, Camorra, Dragetta), which offers valuable services to the criminal networks originating in the countries of origin in Asia and Africa in terms of transporting and distributing migrant workers to “friendly” employers. The image is confirmed by a report by the German network dpanews on the occasion of the Amendolara massacre, according to which the local circles of Pakistani “supervisors” cooperate with the powerful Dragetta criminal organization in the Calabrian region.
According to , in the Italian fields about 230,000 people, about a quarter of all land workers in total, are in undeclared work. The phenomenon has a particularly high frequency mainly in Puglia, Sicily, Campania, Calabria and Lazio, where it is estimated that over 40% of workers have an irregular or no contract. In many northern regions the irregularity rate is only slightly lower, between 20% and 30%.
It is worth noting that a law against the illegal labor mediation system was approved in 2016 by the Renzi government and is still in force. But the axis of prevention is considered to be at a standstill, both due to the absence of effective controls and due to the fears of migrant workers who, in order to secure the documents required for the residence permit, accept to work in slave conditions. Critics of the current jurisprudence point out that the bureaucratic process is long and, in the meantime, the immigrant is left without protection, without work, without money and without shelter and thus exposed to violent retaliation and extortion by the corporals (intermediaries).
Reactions
The incident of Amendolara has caused, quite rightly, an uproar at a political and social level. “The gruesome murder of the four land workers in Calabria has shocked us all,” Meloni said in a post on Platform X. She added that the first arrests were an important step towards “revealing the truth and bringing accountability,” stressing: “Italy does not back down in the face of violence and brutality; it is necessary to shed light on this heinous crime and bring all those responsible to justice.”
The head of the official opposition, Ellie Sline, emphasized that she will attend a demonstration organized tomorrow, Saturday (06/06) by the CGIL near the scene of the crime, demanding the protection of the rights of all workers, against any form of exploitation. More critical of the government, former Prime Minister and head of the “Five Star” Giuseppe Conte, accused Meloni of inaction, stressing that it allows the existence of ghettos, which they create as nurseries for the capolato system.
For his part, Francesco Savino, head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, called for a “revolution of consciousness”, emphasizing among other things in his statement: “Enough with this gray zone where the one who sees and knows lets things happen as they are. Enough with the bad habit of considering it normal for people who come from afar to harvest, work, live, sleep, travel and die as bodies without history.” This is not a general reference, since two years before the gangsta-style beating on Amendolara, the , due to mutilation at work. His death was linked to the inhumane attitude of his employer, who avoided notifying the health services, as a result of which the unfortunate young man’s health deteriorated rapidly. “This is not an exception,” Marko Omicsolo, a sociology professor with deep knowledge of working conditions in the Italian territory, told the Guardian in a warning that today resonates as aptly as it does macabrely.
