Latina, 2 July 2024 – “I have passedand about two weeks after the death of Satnam Singh (read here), the 31-year-old Indian who died on June 19th after having been the victim, in the previous days, of a terrible accident at work in the province of Latina. A story of exploitation and black labor, a tragedy that has rekindled the media spotlight on the sad phenomenon of gangmastering, which however has been an alarming reality in the Pontine area for several years now: a system of modern slavery, which involves numerous illegal workers and to which our society has turned a blind eye too many times. Confeuro condemns this system without any ifs or buts and recalls how more than onceand – well before the death of poor Satnam Singh – has urged local and national institutions to combat gangmastering with more incisive and concrete actions”. Thus, in a press release, Andrea Tisor, national president of Confeuro, the Confederation of European and World Farmers, and Enrico Avvisati, responsible for Confeuro Latina.
“The hope therefore – they continue – is that we continue toto fight against all forms of exploitation and illegality, in Latina as in the rest of the country, beyond the media and emotional wave of these weeks, both by increasing controls and checks (especially by the labor inspectorate), and by fueling a new cultural revolution, based on the protection of fundamental human rights and respect for the rules related to safety in places. The tragedy of poor Satnam – which has shocked the Indian community to which Confeuro extends its deepest solidarity and closeness – therefore it is not “just” a human drama but must also be a social signal against gangmastering, against precariousness and against discrimination of migrant workers in our country. In this sense, Confeuro Latina is ready to intervene to help all victims of exploitation and gangmastering, in agriculture as in other employment sectors, in the hope and conviction that tragedies like those of Satnam Singh must never happen again”.
