His death shocks Italy Indian harvest worker loses arm - boss abandons him
Fruit and vegetables from Italy can also be found in Swiss supermarkets. But the working conditions there are sometimes miserable - as the death of an Indian man shows. Now the horror is great.
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- An Indian harvest worker has died in Italy after an accident at work.
- The man was caught in a machine that severed his right arm.
- His employer then drove him home instead of to hospital.
The death of an Indian harvest worker, who may have been left to bleed to death after a work accident, is making headlines in Italy: While working in a field in the south of Rome, the 31-year-old was caught in a machine that severed his right arm and crushed his legs. According to the investigation, his employer did not take him to hospital, but drove him home in a van and left him there.
The severed arm was discovered in a fruit crate next to it. One and a half days later, he succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
The public prosecutor's office is now investigating the man suspected of being responsible for the farm, a 37-year-old Italian. According to previous findings, the Indian - a man named Satnam Singh, who came to Italy with his wife in 2021 - did not have a work permit. It was also unclear on Thursday whether he even had a residence permit.
Field work for 4 francs an hour
According to estimates, around 230,000 people are employed illegally in Italian agriculture - including many migrants from countries such as India and Pakistan, who work for very low wages. A large proportion of the produce ends up in German supermarkets. The trade unions speak of systematic exploitation.
The accident occurred on Monday in a field near the municipality of Borgo Santa Maria, around 60 kilometers south of Rome, where melons and zucchinis in particular are grown. According to media reports, harvest workers there are paid around four francs an hour.
According to the investigation, Singh was caught in a machine used to cover large areas of the fields with plastic. His wife was nearby when the accident happened. She told the police: "I begged the owner to help us, I begged him on my knees. But he dropped us off in front of the house and ran away."
Unions deplore modern form of slavery
Only neighbors then helped and alerted the emergency services. An hour and a half passed between the accident and first aid. Singh was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Rome, where he died on Wednesday as a result of his injuries.
The general secretary of the Flai union in the region, Hardeep Kaur, said: "Unfortunately, it's not a horror movie. It is all true." Other trade unionists described the treatment of foreign harvest workers in Italy as a modern form of slavery. According to an earlier report, refugee children are also employed in the fields, particularly in the south.
The employer explained his behavior by saying that he had panicked. According to the daily newspaper "La Repubblica ", he also justified his actions by claiming that the harvest worker had used the plastic tarpaulin machine without permission. The public prosecutor's office is now investigating negligent homicide, failure to render assistance and breaches of safety regulations.
Government speaks of "act of barbarism"
The death of the harvest worker sparked a debate about the treatment of foreign harvest workers. Many newspapers reported widely on the case. Labor Minister Marina Calderone described the incident as an "act of barbarism". Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, a brother-in-law of right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, said: "We are confronted with a tragedy that cannot leave us indifferent and must be fully investigated."
In addition, undeclared work in the fields is to be more strictly controlled and punished more severely. As a sign of mourning, the regional administration ordered that the flags in front of town halls and other state buildings be flown at half-mast. The state also wants to cover the costs of the funeral. On Thursday, temperatures in the south of Rome were close to 40 degrees. Work in the fields continued.
