In a surprising incident, the Italian police reported on Saturday that they had taken nearly half a million euros ($545,300) from the two alleged abusers of 33 Indian agricultural laborers who had been forced into slave-like working conditions in the northern Verona province. Italian attention has turned its attention to labor exploitation in the wake of a June disaster involving an Indian fruit picker who lost his limb due to machinery.The slavery amongstIn the most recent instance, authorities said that the suspected Indian gang leaders brought their fellow citizens to Italy on temporary labor visas, requesting 17,000 euros from each of them in exchange for a better future. The police described the treatment of the migrants as slavery and stated that they were given farm employment where they worked for just 4 euros an hour, seven days a week, for 10 to 12 hours a day. The money was deducted from their pay until all of the debts were paid.According to the police statement, some were asked to labor for free in exchange for paying an extra 13,000 euros for a permanent work permit, which, in reality, would have never been issued to them. The victims would receive protection, job prospects, and legal residency documents, the police stated, while the accused abusers were charged with crimes related to slavery and labor exploitation. Similar to other European countries, Italy has an increasing labor shortage that is frequently filled by immigration, especially for lower-paying occupations. The visa systemThe country also has a migrant work visa system that has seen instances of fraud. Labor law infractions are another issue facing the nation. Data from the National Statistics Office (Istat) for 2021 show that 11% of Italian workers were working illegally, with almost 23% of those jobs being in the agricultural sector.
