FRUITS OF EXPLOITATION Those who work the land have the right to protection, care and dignity
Labour exploitation is a phenomenon in which rights are denied at every stage of work, from recruitment methods to contract regularity, from transport to safety at work, to the dignity of accommodation and remuneration. Often, people are recruited by an intermediary, known as a caporale, Often, people are recruited by an intermediary, known as a caporale, who, before the harvest season begins, gathers workers to work “off the books” or “in the grey economy” in the fields, without any protection in terms of safety, rest or compensation, which is far below the minimum wage required by law under the collective agreement for agricultural workers. to make them work “off the books” or “in the grey economy” in the fields, without any protection in terms of safety, rest or remuneration, which is far below the minimum wage provided for by law in the collective agreement for agricultural workers.
Between the late 1950s and early 1960s, with the economic boom, the countryside became depopulated as Italian agricultural workers moved to urban and industrial areas. From that moment on, the workforce in the fields was gradually replaced by migrants, most of whom were confined to a state of cultural and linguistic isolation.
Today, in Italy, in the fields and greenhouses, behind the agricultural production that supplies national and international markets, lies an alarming reality: thousands of migrant workers, mainly from West Africa, North Africa, Eastern Europe and South Asia, are victims of exploitation. Many of these workers live in conditions of severe legal, economic, health and social precariousness, without access to fundamental rights and forced to work and live in situations of extreme vulnerability.
Agro-Pontino (Lazio), Borgo Mezzanone (Apulia), Gioia Tauro (Calabria), Campobello di Mazara (Sicily), Ribera Sicilia), the Fascia Trasformata (Sicily), are just some of the areas in Italy affected by the phenomenon of seasonal agricultural harvesting, where the system of exploitation of migrants is also widespread. This phenomenon involves various production chains, from tomatoes in Puglia and Basilicata, to citrus fruits in Calabria and Sicily, to olives in Campobello di Mazara and fruit and vegetables in Agro Pontino.
It is precisely within the broad framework of labour exploitation that one of the most characteristic and now well-known phenomena of this system fits in: caporalato. But the system of labour exploitation is not limited to this; caporalato is only a symptom of a more complex pathology. It is just one link in a chain of abuses that also arise with the contribution of large-scale distribution (GDO), which determines them with its degenerate forms of pressure on producers to lower prices.
Large-scale retail chains, through their control of prices and sales conditions, squeeze farmers’ margins, who often cannot even cover their production costs. This well-established mechanism forces many companies to pass on the squeeze on value to their workforce, turning it into the main lever for savings.
Due to limited employment opportunities and their irregular status, migrants accept unfair and gruelling working conditions, with shifts that can exceed 12 hours a day for very low pay, ranging from €20 to €30 per day, which is often deducted by the “caporali” for transport to the fields or for accommodation in shanty towns lacking essential services. Or, worse still, workers are paid on a piecework basis, a method of remuneration that further encourages inhumane and alienating shifts.
Labour exploitation is therefore part of a network of illegal practices that do not only concern the role of the gangmaster. For example, there are many companies that appear to be formally compliant, while in reality their workers are not. One of the most common strategies is the use of false pay slips, where payments appear to comply with national contracts on paper, while in reality workers receive a lower amount, with arbitrary deductions for alleged food and accommodation costs. Migrants are often hired on contracts for a few days a month, while working full-time without any legal protection for many months. In many cases, this is also based on psychological blackmail and subordination, as workers depend on their employers for housing and documents.
These dynamics are facilitated by a chronic lack of effective controls and the difficulty of exposing violations, partly due to workers’ fear of losing their jobs, residence permits or minimal support networks. The few inspections, ambiguous regulations on subcontracting and diluted responsibilities along the supply chain make it difficult to assign clear responsibility, consolidating a system in which exploitation is functional to the current model of agricultural production.
The consequences of this system of exploitation go far beyond working conditions and directly affect the daily lives of farm workers. Thousands of migrants are forced to live in informal settlements, without drinking water, electricity, adequate sanitation and access to medical care, with significant impacts on their health. Illnesses related to excessive workload (such as musculoskeletal disorders), malnutrition, poor hygiene and prolonged exposure to high temperatures in the fields are unfortunately common. Not to mention the mental health issues caused by the trauma these people have suffered in their countries of origin and during their long journey to Italy, as well as the inhumane living and working conditions they are now forced to endure. In many cases, access to healthcare is difficult or even denied, mainly due to the legal and social vulnerability of workers. Migrant women are also particularly exposed to forms of violence and exploitation, including the risk of trafficking and forced prostitution.
We don’t want to talk only about illegal hiring. Illegal hiring is part of the problem. Labour exploitation is a phenomenon in which rights are denied at every stage of work, from recruitment methods to contract regularity, from transport to safety at work, to the dignity of accommodation and remuneration.
Marcello Rossoni – Head of Mission INTERSOS Italy
A tragic example that has recently brought this reality back into the spotlight is the death of Satnam Singh, a 31-year-old Sikh farm labourer, which occurred in the summer of 2024 in the Agro Pontino area. After an accident at work in a greenhouse, instead of receiving medical assistance, Singh was abandoned in front of his home by his employer, who feared legal consequences. This incident sparked national and international outrage, once again highlighting the brutality of a system that exploits the vulnerability of migrant workers and underscoring the urgent need for concrete action to guarantee the rights and safety of these individuals.
Many other deaths due to marginalisation, precarious living conditions and isolation are those that we at INTERSOS have denounced in recent years and continue to witness every day: people, including young people, who have lost their lives due to treatable chronic diseases because they did not have the opportunity to receive treatment; people who fell ill without warning and did not always receive immediate assistance; workers who were victims of road accidents while being taken to work, crammed into vehicles that were too small; people killed in their shacks in fires caused by short circuits or sparks from braziers.
What we ask:
- Respect for the rights of foreign workers, guaranteeing them safe employment.
- Access to medical care without bureaucratic, linguistic, cultural and logistical obstacles.
- Decent housing solutions. Overcoming ghettos is not an option, it is an urgent necessity: because living in shacks without water, electricity and sanitation is not a life.
- To work together with institutions and other associations to achieve effective social, housing and employment inclusion.
- The chain of labour exploitation is also triggered by large retailers who put pressure on producers. We therefore ask all citizens and consumers to shop consciously and mindfully: excessively low product prices are synonymous with exploitation.
INTERSOS’ intervention from 2018 to date in informal settlements in the province of Foggia
The Capitanata area, in northern Apulia, is home to the province of Foggia, the third largest in Italy, with poverty levels below the average for southern regions. Agriculture plays a leading role in the region’s economy, ranking among the world’s top tomato producers. In fact, 50% of Italian tomatoes come from the Foggia area.
With the intensification of migration to Europe, the area has seen an increase in the number of seasonal workers: according to data from IDOS (2024) and FLAI CGIL (2023), Puglia is one of the regions with the highest number of foreign agricultural workers, with almost 23,000, 35% of whom are located in the Foggia area, the epicentre of the phenomenon of foreign labour employed in the fields and its exploitation.
According to estimates from recent years, in the Capitanata area, there are approximately 2,000 people in winter and 6,500 in summer who are forced to live in informal settlements – so-called ghettos – in precarious sanitary conditions. These settlements are strongly linked to labour exploitation, where seasonal workers outside the reception system work illegally without contracts or protections. Since 2018, INTERSOS has been operating in the Foggia area, providing community healthcare services in some informal settlements: the former airport runway in Borgo Mezzanone, Palmori, Borgo San Domenico and the farmhouses between Poggio Imperiale and Lesina.
Our teams, made up of healthcare personnel, social workers and linguistic-cultural mediators, work to promote the healthcare inclusion of vulnerable people, mainly seasonal workers, thanks to two mobile clinics through which they reach the settlements every week to provide medical assistance, guidance and support services provided by local institutions, and health and hygiene promotion sessions.
Following the memorandum of understanding signed with the Local Health Authority of Foggia, since 2019 INTERSOS’s social and health care intervention has been structured in such a way as to ensure greater accessibility for those receiving assistance, with the provision of training courses and the inclusion of cultural mediators.
INTERSOS’ intervention in settlements in Sicily
INTERSOS has been active since 2023 in western Sicily, providing support to migrant workers employed in seasonal agricultural work. For two consecutive seasons (2023–2024 and 2024–2025), our mobile clinics provided social and health care in two key areas of the agricultural supply chain: the Ribera area, in the province of Agrigento, during the orange harvest season (roughly from November to March), and Campobello di Mazara, in the province of Trapani, during the olive harvest (from September to November).
In both areas, migrant agricultural workers arrive on a seasonal basis, in response to the anticipated demand for labour in the fields. They settle temporarily in informal settlements or abandoned housing structures, where they remain for the duration of the harvest. These are extremely precarious contexts, often lacking access to essential services such as drinking water, electricity and sewage systems.
After the clearance of the large ghetto in Campobello di Mazara in May 2023, the settlements did not disappear but simply changed in nature: they are now fragmented and generally medium-sized, typically housing between 20 and 100 people and consisting exclusively of men, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. The demographic profile is very varied, ranging from young adults to men over 50, all of whom share conditions of extreme vulnerability. The areas where these settlements are concentrated are often peripheral and isolated, difficult to reach and systematically excluded from local health services. Even municipal administrations, although aware of the conditions in the area, struggle to respond in a structured and effective manner also due to pressure from the local production system. A significant proportion of these workers are in an irregular legal situation, while others, despite having a residence permit, encounter bureaucratic obstacles that limit their access to services, such as the lack of a registered residence or poor knowledge of their healthcare rights.