Italy has been under pressure globally as horror stories continue to emerge after the barbaric treatment meted out to immigrant labor there. It all began a few weeks ago when the tragic death of Satnam Singh came to light.

Singh, an immigrant laborer from India, was left to die on the road by his employer with a severed arm. The Italian government cracked down on middle men who ran the illegal racket and kept immigrant workers in shocking conditions while paying them measly amounts as salaries.

It is reliably learnt that following the Singh incident, the Indian government also raised this issue with Italy. People in the know however said, “The problem arises once visas for the immigrant workers expire. They want to stay on and that provides an opportunity to the middle men to then exploit them.”

Sources in the government also cautioned that it would be wrong to make between these incidents and the problem of lack of jobs in India, “People from India, especially from states like Punjab have been going abroad for decades in search of work.”

Italy, under pressure from trade unions, and global embarrassment, finally cracked down and last week two Indians were arrested on the charge of enslaving 33 farm labourers in Italy’s Verona province. Many global media outlets have described the conditions of the labor in Italy as ‘slavery’.

Details have emerged that the workers were allegedly forced to work more than 10 hours a day, seven days a week for a tiny wage, which was used to pay off debts to the alleged gang masters. The death of Singh has helped shed light on the tragic fact that in Italy there is exploitation of labor on farms, and that includes both Italian citizens and foreign labor. Thousands of people work in fields, vineyards and greenhouses across Italy, usually without contracts and in dangerous conditions.

Indians started going to Italy to work on farms in the mid-1980s. Most headed to work in the Agro Pontino — the Pontine Marshes, harvesting pumpkins, leeks, beans and tomatoes, and working on flower farms or in buffalo mozzarella production.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has condemned Singh’s death as inhumane and barbaric. “These are inhumane acts that do not belong to the Italian people, and I hope that this barbarism will be harshly punished,” Meloni said.

According to Ministry of External Affairs data, in May 2024, there are over 200,000 overseas Indians in Italy. The number of documented Indians in Italy is also the highest in continental Europe, just after Germany.

In 2018, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery estimated that more than 400,000 agricultural workers in Italy risk being exploited and almost 100,000 likely face “inhumane conditions”.

So, while Italy cracks down on illegal labor and India sticks to making it a talking point in the bilateral relations, what cannot be overlooked is the fact that India today has the world’s largest youth population who are desperate for jobs.

It is no coincidence that Indians have been recruited to fight in the Russia-Ukraine conflict or that Indian labor has stepped in to fill the vacuum of Palestinian workers in Israel today.

Post the horrific 7 Oct attack, Israel refused to renew work visas for Palestinians. Israel then looked to India for labor who were willing to risk their lives in a conflict zone.

It is a vicious cycle that can only end if India provides more jobs to its citizens. And countries like Italy must roll out stricter laws to protect immigrants from being enslaved by cruel masters. – Simran Sodhi is Executive Editor of nrifocus.com