Latina (Italy): Thousands of Indian farm labourers urged an end to "slavery" in Italy after the gruesome death of a worker shone a light on the brutal exploitation of undocumented migrants.
Satnam Singh, 31, who had been working without legal papers, died last week after his arm was sliced off by a machine. The farmer he was working for dumped him by the road, along with his severed limb.
"He was thrown out like a dog. There is exploitation every day, we suffer it every day, it must end now," said Gurmukh Singh, head of the Indian community in the Lazio region of central Italy. "We come here to work, not to die," he said.
Children held up colourful signs reading "Justice for Satnam Singh" as the procession snaked through Latina, a city in a rural area south of Rome that is home to tens of thousands of Indian migrant workers.
Indians have worked in the Agro Pontino - the Pontine Marshes - since the mid-1980s, harvesting pumpkins, leeks, beans and tomatoes, and working on flower farms or in buffalo mozzarella production.
Singh's death is being investigated, but it has sparked a wider debate in Italy over how to tackle systemic abuses in the agriculture sector, where use of undocumented workers and their abuse by farmers or gangmasters is rife.
"Satnam died in one day, I die every day. Because I too am a labour victim," said Parambar Singh, whose eye was seriously hurt in a work accident. "My boss said he couldn't take me to hospital because I didn't have a contract," said the 33-year-old, who has struggled to work since. "I have been waiting 10 months for justice," he said.
The workers get paid an average of 20 euros ($21) a day for up to 14 hours of labour, according to the Osservatorio Placido Rizzotto, which analyses working conditions in the agriculture industry.
Far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has sought to reduce the number of undocumented migrants to Italy while increasing pathways for legal migration for non-EU workers to tackle labour shortages.
However, according to the Confagricoltura agribusiness association, only around 30 per cent of workers given a visa actually travel to Italy, meaning there are never enough labourers to meet farmers' needs.
