Italy

Africans exploited in southern Italy

Article published on the 2008-12-18 Latest update 2008-12-19 11:02 TU

African farm workers living in deplorable conditions in Reggio Calabria, southern Italy
(Credit: MSF)

French-based NGO Médecins Sans Frontières released a report Thursday documenting thousands of illegal African immigrants who are living in "sub-human conditions" and being exploited as farmworkers in southern Italy. They are paid a pittance and live in squalor, which is "shameful" for a western, developed country, according to Loris De Fiilippi, a Rome-based co-ordinator with MSF.

"A country of the G8 should ensure them a certain level of humanitarian aid ... this is something shameful for a country of the G8," said De Filippi, comparing conditions unfavourably to standards in a refugee camp in Africa.

"We are talking about 1,500 people ... living in very bad conditions,"  he told RFI.

MSF says the immigrants, 97 per cent of whom are men, live in disused houses or abandoned factories and earn 15 to 20 euros for a day's work of ten to 12 hours.

"Almost 40 per cent of them are not making enough money to send to their families," De Filippi told RFI.

The report says they begin picking tomatoes in May and work through until March to harvest citrus fruit.

Those working are mainly illegal immigrants and come from a number of African countries.

"They are coming from countries in west Africa, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, but even Burkina Faso ... some of them are east Africans, Eriteans, Somalians, Sudanese," says De Fiilippi.

The Italian government has been notified of the situation, but has not come to the site nor has it offered any sort of solution, according to De Fiilippi.

Meanwhile, MSF has been handing out hygiene kits and sleeping bags to the workers.

The aid agency has been giving the men medical care, as many have been suffering from illnesses, including TB, but did not have access to a doctor or were too scared to go to one.