«When Satnam started screaming, I ran away, but I saw Soni, his wife, crying and him without an arm». This is the testimony of Taranjeet Singh, a worker at the agricultural company where the 30-year-old Indian laborer worked, who died from injuries caused by an agricultural machinery which caused his arm to detach. That day, Singh was present: “there was me, Satnam, his wife and another Italian woman who works there”, he says. When the employer, Antonello Lovato, «who was on a tractor, approached – he continues – he started swearing and uttering threats such as “You have to shut up”». And then again: «I saw everything – he underlines – and I started telling them to call the ambulance. But the employer did nothing, he went towards the van and loaded Satnam, his wife and his arm. I thought he was taking him to the hospital. I didn’t think he would leave it at the gate. At a certain point he said that Satnam was dead, and that help could not come.”
Since Satnam died on 19 June at the San Camillo hospital also, according to the autopsy due to “profuse bleeding”, Taranjeet Singh has been unable to sleep: “I can’t get out of this nightmare”, he says. While he tells Soni, who received a special residence permit a few days ago, “to hold on: the community is with you.” When she started working at the Lovato cooperative, which in three years received 849 thousand euros in funding guaranteed by the State, the employer – under investigation for manslaughter, violation of workplace safety regulations and failure to provide assistance – «was a good, serious person, who picked me up and took me to work when it started to rain. Since the accident happened, however, he hasn’t been heard from again.” Taranjeet has been working at the company for a year and a half, «I earn 5.50 euros an hour and I am irregular. Now I’ve lost my job and after what happened in Satnam – he concludes – no one lets anyone who doesn’t have documents work anymore.”
