Jasveer Kaur last saw her son pre-pandemic. Now the Punjabi mother of three has only memories, faded photos-and stories of a freak farm accident that ended his life and shed light on the grip that gangmasters exert over Italy’s migrant labour market. Melon picking for a pittance was not the dream that Satnam Singh had in mind when he left his village in northern India for a new life in Italy, working the marshy farmland south of Rome.
Back-breaking jobs, measly wages, long hours—and then the fatal mechanical accident that severed his arm and short life. “I used to tell him to video-call me and show where he was working. He used to say, ‘Mother, do not stress about me,’” Kaur said, swallowing sobs outside her home in Chand Nawan village.
Singh, 31, died in June after losing his arm in the greenhouse where he worked in Agro Pontino, an area close to Rome where wheat, grapes and other fruit are intensively farmed, much of it by illegal migrants from India and eastern Europe. His death has opened a window onto the plight of Italy’s estimated 450,000 illegal migrants, with thousands of farms heavily dependent on men like Singh to plant, harvest then process crops.
Context has traced Singh’s steps, explored his motives and asked what might stop other young men risking all for the promise of an uptick in wages and a life of abuse far from home. Singh left his family in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown, bound for Italy by the so-called “donkey” route-a long, roundabout journey designed to dodge border controls. He traced the steps of many other young Punjabis fleeing India’s breadbasket, where joblessness has now taken its toll.
While the Indian economy is growing by about 7.2 per cent this year, job creation has lagged. Unemployment in Punjab stands at 6.1 per cent against a national rate of 3.2 per cent, according to government data. If life in Italy was hard, the voyage was apt preparation for the ordeal ahead-and one shared by all his family.
Singh’s father Gurmukh said the family had to borrow money from a loan shark, pledge their gold ornaments and even abandon a daughter’s wedding plans to pay a people smuggler nearly a million rupees ($12,000) for the tortuous journey. “He told us he wanted to go abroad so we said that no one stops today’s youth,” the 68-year-old told Context.
Singh ended up on one of about 10,000 farms in the Lazio area, where it is common to see groups of workers-many of them Sikhs-bent double over hot fields harvesting fruit and veg. Months into his new life, Singh’s dreams ended in the freak accident that severed his arm and crushed his legs.
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Singh was left outside his home after the accident, his severed limb placed in a fruit crate. Neighbours told RAI public television that his partner had pleaded with them to call an ambulance. He died in a Rome hospital 48 hours later and his employer’s son, Antonello Lovato, now faces potential homicide charges. Investigations are ongoing, but RAI quoted Lovato’s father as saying Singh had been warned not to approach the equipment.
Medical reports gathered by the prosecution say timely access to an emergency room could have saved Singh’s life. If found guilty, 38-year-old Lovato could face a minimum of 21 years in prison for his part in Singh’s death. Whatever happens to another man’s son, this time in distant Italy, Singh’s father Gurmukh said his dreams were now dead. “It is like our spine has been broken,” he said, the tears welling up. “Our world has ended.”
Cheap labour
From Spain to Poland, demand for cheap migrant workers across Europe has grown as production costs rise and local labour migrates to higher-paid city jobs. According to 2021 data from the national statistics office Istat, about 11 per cent of workers in Italy were employed illegally, rising to more than 23 per cent in agriculture.
Human rights activists say the illegal gangmaster system-known as “caporalato”-is behind much of the exploitation. Under this system, farm labourers are hired by middlemen, known as “caporali”, who exploit weaknesses in the Italian seasonal working visa scheme. Migrants are forced to work for low wages, and once their visa expires, they must rely on their employer for work, housing, and a life lived under the radar.
No documents meant no better options for Singh. “He used to tell me that life is tough in Italy,” said his brother Amritpal from the two-room family home, its paintwork chipped and buffaloes tethered in the courtyard.
Amritpal, 35, said Satnam earned 4 to 5 euros ($4 to $5) an hour and was often only paid for eight hours despite working 10. Money was also deducted for breaks. “He ended up working like a donkey just to make rent and pay for food,” said Amritpal, who felt his brother endured the tough conditions in the thin hope of winning a residence permit.
Punish this ‘barbarity’
When Singh’s death hit the headlines in Italy this summer, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni deplored what she called these “inhumane acts” and hoped the “barbarity would be punished”. But politics is part of the wider problem, experts say, with the illegal migrant plight neither secret nor new.
Maria Grazia Gabrielli, general secretary of Italy’s largest trade union CGIL, linked this “event of unprecedented brutality” to “slave-like conditions” long endured by many farm hands. Italy already has an “anti-gangmastery” law, under which people found guilty of exploiting or illegally recruiting migrant workers risk fines jail. The Placido Rizzotto Observatory, a watchdog that monitors links between farm exploitation and organised crime-known locally as “agromafia”-estimates the sector employs 2,30,000 labourers under illegal conditions. That is close to one in four of all farm workers in Italy.
Legal experts say existing laws curb some exploitation—but that much more must be done, be it giving legal aid or temporary housing to those many workers trapped without money or papers. “In terms of penalties, the law is effective,” said Giuseppe De Falco, prosecutor of the Latina province in the Lazio region.
Rightist parties have long dominated politics in the region and labour experts say this encourages what is systemic abuse. “On many occasions, the right has downplayed the severity of the problem or turned a blind eye to protect local business interests,” said Marco Omizzolo, a sociology professor at La Sapienza University in Rome, who has been documenting abuses against Sikh migrant workers in Latina for 16 years.
“Exploitation remains profitable…because entrepreneurs vote while labourers can’t.” Omizzolo said labour inspectors should talk directly to workers to ensure all the various statements add up and deploy drones to check the working conditions that may be hidden below.
Another big barrier to eliminating the abuse is the stigma many migrants feel should they come clean. “They can’t admit they’re being exploited because their families back home have very high expectations for them,” said Omizzolo by phone from Rome. Long hours and language barriers can also prevent workers from reporting abuse.
“Those who come here don’t speak the language and work from 5 a.m. until late in the evening,” said Harbajan Ghuman, a Sikh community leader in Sabaudia, a small city in Latina. Ghuman knew Singh and said his death made him fear for himself, his son – who also works in the sector—and other farm labourers.
As for the farmers, smallholders say they are forced to cut employee costs because of tough market conditions. They cite dwindling water supplies and rising fertilizer prices, as well as competition from North Africa and Spain. Former farmer Robert Lessio also blames large retailers for driving down prices. “Farmers with warehouses full of agricultural products will sell at rock-bottom prices just to make some money,” he said, describing it as a race to the bottom.
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Given this, the 66-year-old chose to close his farm in 2014 after 42 years of trying to keep the family business afloat. In May, the EU approved a law requiring big companies in the bloc to check their supply chains for forced labour and act if any abuse is found. The law is due to come into force in 2028. Penalties include fines of up to 5 per cent of turnover, a cost they say puts European firms at a competitive disadvantage globally.
But Fabio Ciconte – whose Terra! association campaigns against abuse-said transparency in the supply chain was key. “Labour exploitation is a battle to fight on many levels. It cannot be resolved by a single law,” he said. Ciconte suggested supermarkets caught in price wars should do more to ensure their supply chains are exploitation-free, for example by labelling products with the price paid to farmers.
‘Culture of migration’
Back in Chand Nawan, villagers said Singh’s death was unlikely to deter other locals who dream of a better life, given that some 13 per cent of rural household in Punjab had seen at least one family member move overseas. Three men have left the village for work in Italy since news of Singh’s death broke – or about one a month.
Cycle mechanic Paramjit Singh said he had borrowed 900,000 rupees ($10,705) to buy his son a seasonal work permit. “I make only 500 rupees a day. How am I supposed to feed my family of six with that?” said the 49-year-old. His older son was earning 700 euros ($780) a month in Italy, he said, and Singh now felt ready to send over a younger brother to join him. At least half a dozen other villagers-its population numbers about 3,500-said they were planning to leave for Italy as soon as possible or to send a relative instead.
Sociologist Meenakshi Thapan said a lack of good jobs and education, along with a decades-long drug epidemic in the border state, left many young men feeling hopeless and out of options. But aspiration-as well as a yen to escape poverty-also lured many young Indians onto the treacherous donkey trail. “Punjab has a culture of migration…(People) see their neighbours come back, displaying their wealth, wearing expensive clothes, jewellery…they do not want to feel left out,” she said by phone from Madanapalle town in southern India.
Thapan said that the new EU laws could in fact pose bigger risks for migrants as trafficking networks seek new, dangerous ways to sneak people in and avoid detection. Singh’s death will not deter locals from going, she said. “They are ready to lose their lives. They are ready to try anything to get out, to look for a better life.”
This article first appeared on Context, powered by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
