Brutal Deaths of Exploited Migrants Shine a Spotlight on Italy’s Farms
Protest in memory of Mohamed Ben Ali in Naples. Photograph: Pasquale Senatore/Pacific Press/Rex/Shutterstock
By Lorenzo Tondo and Marta Bellingreri
This article was originally published by The Guardian on July 13, 2020.
Earlier this summer, as millions of Italians were locked down inside their homes, fruit and vegetables were left to rot in the fields despite the cost to the country’s economy.
Italy’s informal refugee and migrant workforce, who had previously worked long hours in wretched conditions for paltry wages to bring produce off the fields, were absent from the farms.
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