The thirty-one year old of Indian origin, Satnam Singh, didn’t make it, who on Monday afternoon had been involved in a terrible accident at work on a farm in Borgo Santa Maria, on the outskirts of Latina, where he had lost his arm in a roller plastic wrapping machine towed by a tractor, which had also crushed his lower limbs. The man, instead of being rescued, was abandoned in front of his home with his arm severed, resting on a box used for harvesting vegetables. After being urgently transported by air ambulance to the San Camillo hospital in Rome, where he had been admitted with a reserved prognosis, the thirty-one year old died yesterday morning in the Roman hospital.
In the meantime, the Latina prosecutor’s office, following the complaint by Flai Cgil Latina-Frosinone, opened an investigation for negligent personal injury, negligence and provisions regarding irregular work. Investigations by the Carabinieri are underway, carried out together with the Nil of Latina and the Spresal staff of the ASL, with further investigations useful for defining the worker’s working position and regularity on the Italian territory. The affair aroused indignation and rekindled attention on the phenomenon of gangmastering and the exploitation of laborers bordering on slavery.
In the Chamber, the opposition from Avs to the Pd, from M5s, Iv and Action asked for information from the Minister of Labor Marina Elvira Calderone on the fight against gangmastering, defining what happened as “atrocious”. Even the senator of the Democratic Party Susanna Camusso, with an urgent question addressed to ministers Calderone and Lollobrigida, asks, together with 13 other colleagues of the Democratic Party, to know the government’s strategy on the matter.
“I learn with dismay of the tragic death of the Indian laborer, Satnam Singh, mutilated by an agricultural machine and abandoned to his fate by unscrupulous corporals. I want to express all my condolences and closeness to the victim’s family, for whom we had acted as Ministry, through Inail, in order to guarantee every necessary care and support. Singh’s story is the darkest snapshot of that piece of criminal economy founded on the abuse and exploitation of the weakest and most blackmailable workers, which we must eradicate. decisively and without compromise. I trust that the responsibilities for this absurd and avoidable death will be shed light as soon as possible, renewing the Government’s commitment to collaborating with the authorities to clarify matters, but also through new and more incisive actions prepared by the Roundtable gangmaster, established at the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies”. The deputy minister of Labor and Social Policies, Maria Teresa Bellucci, writes in a note.
“This episode represents a violation of fundamental human rights, human dignity and the rules relating to worker safety”, says the mayor of Latina, Matilde Celentano. The president of the Lazio Region Francesco Rocca underlines that what happened is “disconcerting”, “cruel” and “cowardly”, reiterating that “safety at work and the fight against gangmastering are our priority”.
