Images captured by surveillance cameras and relayed by the Corriere della Sera send shivers down your spine. We see a car stopped at a gas station, and two men, who, from outside, throw what is probably flammable liquid, before closing the vehicle doors so that the passengers cannot escape. There will be four to die, “agricultural workers killed in Amendolara†, notes the Milanese daily. A small town located in Calabria, in the deep south of Italy, where the tragedy took place.
Warning violent images:
“The four agricultural workers killed are of Afghan nationality, for three of them, and Pakistani, for the last one… detail Sky TG 24, which indicates that the two people arrested and accused of this murder are also of Pakistani nationality. A seventh person was also present at the crime scene, another Afghan, who managed to escape from the car. “Selon son récit, reports the news site, the agricultural workers were allegedly killed because they demanded to be paid for their work, and because they refused to give transportation money to the two arrested people.†The latter are identified by the transalpine media as probably being corporals. A word that designates a well-known figure from the agricultural fields of southern Italy.
The corporal, explains another article from Corriere della Sera“is the one that creates the link between agricultural businesses and migrant workers… In this area of Calabria, according to data provided by the Italian union CGIL, “Only 30% of migrant agricultural workers have a contract, and even when they have one, they are mostly paid under the table.” These people, who do not speak Italian, are therefore recruited by corporalsÂ: other migrants who master the local language, and take advantage of it to exploit this workforce who needs to work. “No corporal offers a complete service: it brings migrants to the fields, provides them with a place to sleep, meals, but it charges for all these services by appropriating part of their salary… notes the Milanese media, which explains that this service also arranges agricultural companies, which thus obtain labor at very low cost.
All this business, of course, cannot be done without the approval of the Italians. “Calabrian organized crime, the ‘Ndrangheta, is still there doing business, and as one trade unionist explains, ‘she has a certain skill in selecting corporals‘†, ensures the Corriere della Sera. This diffuse criminal system therefore involves complicity at several levels, confirms The Republic, according to whom, “it’s been years since everyone here has been telling the same story: that of a new gangmaster apparently Pakistani and Indian, but which in reality remains profoundly Italian, because those who really gain something from the exploitation of these slaves are Italians….
“Slaves continue to work. And to die.â€
This is perhaps why, affirms this progressive daily, despite the fact that this system is known to everyone, “this business model continues to work and generate huge gains. The turnover of the business of gangmaster in agriculture worth 4.8 billion euros per year, assures the Roman media. This is enough to understand why, despite everything, slaves continue to work here. And to die.â€
