Orange-picking season: lack of Government measures in Calabria | Medici per i Diritti Umani

Orange-picking season: lack of Government measures in Calabria

““86% of the migrants working in agriculture don’t have an employment contract, more than half of them is sleeping on the ground, living without water, electricity and hygienic services”

Rosarno - medu

Rosarno, 17 December 2015 – Despite the commitment proclaimed by the Government to defeat the phenomenon of caporalato (illegal hiring) and relaunch the agricultural sector, no practical measures have been implemented in the Plain of Gioia Tauro and again this year migrant workers employed in agriculture have to cope with miserable living and working conditions.

From the first data collected by Medici per i Diritti Umani (MEDU) through the activity of their mobile clinic – which since mid-November 2015 has been providing medical treatment and facilitating access to social , legal and health services to seasonal migrant workers – the general picture coming out is somehow similar to that from last year season. Out of 109 patients visited (126 visits in total – first and second access), 89% are under the age of 35 and their countries of origin are mainly Mali (41%), Senegal (17%), Burkina Faso (10%), Ivory Coast (10%) and Gambia (9%).

Most patients (92%) have a regular residence permit. Among them, more than a half (57%) are holders of an international or “humanitarian” protection status and 29% – most of them coming from Mali – have a temporary permit because they are making an appeal against denial of the Commission for asylum seekers. This percentage has sharply increased in this season because of the higher number of workers who have recently arrived in Italy: actually 33% of patients seen by MEDU declared to have been living in Italy less than a year; 27% one or two years. This “young” presence in the Plain, coupled with the alarming level of illiteracy (40% of patients said could not read and write), increases workers vulnerability.

With regard to the access to the healthcare system, 43% of patients with a regular permit does not have the National Sanitary System health card. The most frequent pathologies are directly related to the critical living and working conditions: respiratory syndromes (28%), gastrointestinal disorders (22%), musculoskeletal diseases (13%), trauma (9%), skin disorders (9%).

As in the past years, the presence of legal residence permit crashes with an almost total irregularity of employment contracts. 86% of agricultural workers don’t actually have an employment contract, a static figure over the years showing that little or nothing has been done to defeat illegal work spreading in the territory. Most of the workers, employed for about 8 hours a day, are paid 25 Euros per day for orange picking and 30 Euros for kiwi and olives picking. Workers perceive from the 30% to the 50% less than the salary established by local labor contracts, and do not enjoy any insurance coverage or pension contribution. Among the few workers with a contract (11%), half do not know if it will receive a payroll or contributions according to the days they have worked. While employment centers are absolutely inefficient – as they should ensure a match between labor demand and supply- migrant workers find job through piazza (52%) – by waiting employers in the local main “square” and roads – or the caporale (24%). In this case, workers pay the cost of transport to the field with their salary (from 3 to 5 Euros).

With regard to the living conditions, also this year the situation is very dramatic. 45% of laborers met by Medu are sleeping on a mattresses on the ground, 18% directly on the floor, inside structures without water, electricity and toilets. More than 300 migrants are living in an abandoned factory located in the industrial area of San Ferdinando, now overcrowded and with alarming hygienic conditions. Same fate for hundreds of workers living in abandoned houses in the municipalities of Rizziconi, Taurianova and Rosarno (in the best cases some migrants have petrol generators), inside decaying and run-down buildings without no domestic services.

With regard to the “official” reception centers, more than a thousand migrants are living in the tendopoli of San Ferdinando (a tent camp), despite 450 places available . While there are no structured and clear plans of reception to be implemented, dozens of plastic and carton shacks have been built among the blue tents placed by the Ministry of the Interior in the last few month. Furthermore, the supply of electricity in the camp is not continuous, despite the recent maintenance of the lighting system. Same fate for toilets, arranged this year through the allocation of 15,000 Euro of regional funds, but not enough if compared to the real needs of the camp where, among other things, there is not hot water, and barrels of water are heated on fire.

The container camp of Rosarno is also in critical sanitary conditions , as this year its management is vacant. The camp is located in an area under the jurisdiction of the Calabria Region and, in the absence of resources, appears overcrowded and overrun by piles of rubbish that the Municipality said would not be allowed to collect. Additionally, the opening of the “Village of Solidarity” is been postponed. This costed almost two million euro and its construction has been stopped because of restrictive measures due to mafia infiltration). The only reception program in the Plain seems to be the project promoted by Caritas of Drosi that, every year, and without any resources, act as guarantor with the owners of vacant houses and provides decent homes at controlled prices to more than 100 foreign workers.

The absence of a local measures in line with the Government policies discussed on national level and lack of policies which can improve living and working conditions of migrants, the situation in the Plain of Gioia Tauro seems to get worse year by year. Medici per i Diritti Umani calls both national and regional institutions to organise as soon as possible a working table on immediate measures for labour and reception. These are inseparable elements if the objective to reach is building a long-term approach and change the course of a Plain which seems, year after year, sinking deeper and deeper into illegality and degradation.

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Medu press office – 3343929765 / 0697844892 info@mediciperidirittiumani.org
Medici per i Diritti Umani (MEDU) is an independent humanitarian organization, which started in 2014 the project “TERRAGIUSTA. Campaign Against the Exploitation of Migrant Workers in Agriculture in Italy” in collaboration with Association for Judicial Studies on Immigration (ASGI) and the Laboratory of Theory and Practice of Rights of Roma Tre University (Ltpd). The project and the report Terragiusta are realized with the support of Fondazione Charlemagne, Open Society Foundations, Fondazione con il Sud and Fondazione Nando Peretti.