TOMATO PICKERS: A NEW FORM OF SLAVERY.

Abridged from”Modern slave migrant toil in Italy’s tomato fields”,by Silvia Aloisi,Reuters, September 28, 2009.

RIGNANO GARGANICO(Italy)-After crossing half of Africa and surviving a perilous  boat trip from Libya escaping from hunger,war or dictatorship in search of a better life in Italy,every year thousands of immigrants, many of them from Africa, arrive in the fields of southern Italy to work as seasonal workers picking grapes, olives, tomatoes and oranges.

Broadly tolerated by the authorities thanks to their role in the economy, they endure long hours of backbreaking work and live in squalid camps without running water or electricity.

“ I never thought  it would be like this in Italy. Even

dogs better off than us”, said Bailo, a 24- year-old from Guinea struggling to survive in an area of Puglia which produces 35% of Italy's tomatoes. “ it's better to die than to live like this, because at least when you die your problems are over”.

In this period, the government launched a law to regulate immigrants illegally employed in cleaning or caring for the elderly by Italian families , but that does not apply to those working at bringing tomatoes in from the fields.

Bailo, who was denied an asylum request, says he has  worked eight days in the past two months “and I didn't even put 100 euros in my pocket “.

The going pay for illegal tomato pickers is 3,5 euros per “cassone”, a big plastic crate that, when full, weighs 35 kg. On a good day, workers can hope to make as much as 25 euros from working from dawn to dusk. But in most cases they will have to pay a percentage to the so-called “ caporali “ ,who are middlemen who select the workforce for the farm owners and control that the job gets done.

“These modern slaves are handy for the economy: you can exploit them and then get rid of them when you don't need them anymore” said Father Arcangelo Maira, a local priest trying to help the immigrants.

People sleep on bug-infested mattresses in overcrowded shacks made of cardboard and plastic sheets or in decrepit houses.

After turning a blind eye for years in Puglia, regional authorities in August set up 60 portable toilets and 20 water tanks to serve an estimated 1500 immigrants until October, when most will move further south to the Calabria region for the orange harvest.

“the condition in which they live and eat are extremely precarious. These are youg, strong people who arrive in Italy in good health and fall sick here“,said MSF (Doctors Without Borders ) doctor Alvise Benelli. Spending hours kneeling or bending in the fields means that many suffer from back and muscle pain. The lack of hygiene causes skin and intestinal diseases. There is also an increasing number of people suffering from depression.

“They left their country and came here hoping to find an El Dorado, but they end up living in conditions that are often worse than what they had at home”, said Benelli. “You see it most when they are forced to stay indoors, they sleep for much of the they of the day and don't answer when we speak to them. Sometimes I have seen them cry”