Latina, 25 June 2024. Demonstration of the Indian community of Latina against gangmastering for the death at work of Satnam Singh (Cesare Abbate/Ansa)
Latina, 25 June 2024. Demonstration of the Indian community of Latina against gangmastering for the death at work of Satnam Singh (Cesare Abbate/Ansa)

After the murder of a worker, against gangmastering in Latina justice has blunt weapons

Prior to the death of Satnam Singh and the arrest of his employer, Antonello Lovato, there were many complaints and investigations against the exploitation of labourers in Latina, but the criminal and labour justice system does not carry the load and there are few inspectors. Now that a worker has bled to death, the stretch marks are obvious

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Graziella Di MambroGiornalista

19 luglio 2024

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Who killed Satnam Singh, an Indian worker in the fields of Latina, near Rome? An entrepreneur with 'inhuman conduct'. And also 'a widespread, sick and generalised system in the Pontine area'. Preliminary investigation judge Giuseppe Molfese – in the order that took Antonello Lovato, a man accused of intentional homicide for having abandoned Satnam Singh and his amputated arm in the courtyard of the house where he lived with his wife, to prison – explains best of all what is behind this story and what had already happened in the province of Latina before 4 p.m. on 17 June 2024, the time when the very serious accident occurred. This is not a tragedy, but the final stage of a brutal course of exploitation. Under accusation is not only an employer, but an economic system.

Many complaints, few inspectors

"The sad death of the Indian worker may appear to be a casual and episodic consequence but…"Giuseppe Molfese - Judge of the Court of Latina

The battle against forced labour in Latina has so far been waged with blunt weapons, with 22 labour inspectors against more than seven thousand companies in the agricultural sector alone, 12 thousand labourers employed on a temporary basis, and at least as many illegal and undeclared workers. It is not true that there were few complaints and few investigations, there were many of both, but the criminal justice and labour apparatus did not withstand the shock wave and neither did the inspection bodies. Now that a labourer, only 31 years old, has bled to death because he was not rescued in time, the gaps are obvious.

Asylum and migration, what the new EU pact provides

And they are summed up with stinging clarity by the gip in the order ordering the arrest of Lovato, who is charged with intentional homicide for the death of Satnam Singh: 'It is necessary to go through the events of the case in terms of individual points of investigation, outlining, in particular, the spatio-temporal circumstances and the context in which the work accident occurred. The sad death of the Indian worker may appear to be a random and episodic consequence, but... in light of the frequent court or exclusively investigative findings, the province of Latina, in its agricultural areas, is characterised by numerous companies that, with a few exceptions, benefit from cheap labour provided by citizens of Indian nationality. This circumstance is confirmed by the objective data that sees Latina, in second place only after Rome, for the particular concentration of the Indian community (about 13 thousand). There is no doubt that they are people who have been permanently settled in the area, very often for years, but it is also certain that due to economic and social conditions (usually poor) they are forced to accept precarious work positions, with no contractual guarantees... in agricultural contexts where the most basic and minimum safety and hygiene rules in the workplace are not respected'. Objective considerations that are not new but that perhaps many have not wanted to see or admit.

Dozens of trials

Everyone knew, everyone enjoyed some protection, everyone was aware of the fact that one could get away with it even by violating contractual and safety rules.

Since 2014, dozens of trials for illegal immigration and exploitation have passed through the courtrooms of the Court of Latina and the labour section. The disregard for civil and labour rights began even before the foreign workers arrived in Latina. In March 2022, the Court of Assise (a court for serious crimes) handed down a heavy sentence against 35 entrepreneurs from the Terracina-Fondi-Pontinia triangle for criminal conspiracy to aid and abet illegal immigration and a total fine of EUR 12 million was imposed. The defendants charged Indian and Bengali immigrants to enter Italy as part of the flows for work of 6 or 9 months, then at the expiry date those workers remained without residence permits, becoming illegal immigrants and thus entering the black labour market.

Accomplices on many levels

In November 2023, the gup of the Court of Latina indicted four people, including a lawyer and a pharmacist from Sabaudia, accused of having participated in a ring of prescriptions of drugs against cancer pain (Depalgos, based on paracetamol and oxycodone, a semi-synthetic opioid among the most sold on the street, in the illegal market,ed) to Indian labourers as a doping against fatigue (read the article). In January 2019, an investigation, called Commodo, unveiled connivance with white-collar workers and even a labour inspector: the investigation records show that the company's consultant at the time of an inspection a few months earlier had called a soldier from the inspection team who had told her that 'things had to be put right'. In particular, she says: '... you have to straighten up... because if you have to give at least a semblance'. This phrase is deeply revealing of what has happened in Latina over the last ten to fifteen years: everyone knew, everyone enjoyed some protection, everyone was aware that they could get away with violating contractual and safety rules.

There are not only ruthless agricultural entrepreneurs in this network but also other figures, labour consultants, accountants, tax experts. And then there is the control system, which is in some ways weak and often also isolated. When the Commodo investigation itself revealed the exploitation of dozens of workers, a surreal story unfolded on the sidelines. The workers of the cooperative under investigation for exploitation were also the main accusers and witnesses of what was going on, they declared that they were without a contract and the inspectorate on the basis of those declarations made a report for the INPS that as they were irregular they were excluded from the benefits of unemployment determined by the seizure of the company! Situation remedied after the intervention of the trade unions.

With its new law, the government of Giorgia Meloni will create a new army of irregular migrants, associations say

In court, institutions absent

Investigations into illegal immigration and exploitation have never, until now, had any participation of local or ministerial institutions as civil parties, with one exception, that of the Municipality of Latina in a trial for enslavement of an Indian worker on a farm in Borgo Sabotino. The owner of the farm was convicted in the first instance and has filed an appeal, the administration of Latina is deciding in these days whether to stand trial in the second instance as well.

In the two proceedings against gangmasters already pending against Renzo Lovato, father of Antonello Lovato, there are no requests for civil action by either the municipalities concerned (Cisterna di Latina, Latina, Terracina, Sabaudia, San Felice Circeo) or Inps or Inail, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Labour or the Region of Lazio, i.e. all the subjects that have declared themselves scandalised in recent days.

This article was translated bu our partner Kompreno with the support of DeepL.

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