News of “cruel” treatment of Italy shocked immigrants the death of a worker who worked on farms around the country and picked flowers in temperatures of about 40C.
Tens of thousands of migrants have taken to the fields to harvest tomatoes and other crops in Italy as a series of heat waves have hit the country since mid-June.
The Italian Meteorological Society reported that the average summer temperature in Italy between June and August increased by 1.5 degrees over the past 30 years from 1994 to 2023.
The sweltering heat has created a new and deadly threat for low-wage laborers who toil in rural areas to harvest fruits and vegetables.
Heat and overwork
Dalvir Singh, who worked at a flower shop, is believed to have died of extreme heat and overwork. A 54-year-old woman was found dead on August 16 in a field near the city of Latino in central Italy. Speaking colleagues Guardian they said that he never got sick, that he was “a kind person who always works hard”.
He regularly sent remittances to his family in Punjab, northern India, but friends said Singh intended to return home within the next few years because it became increasingly difficult for him to work in the fields every day as he grew older. His son and son-in-law are now trying to bring his body back to India.
Autopsy results are expected next month, while local prosecutors are still investigating the circumstances of Singh’s death and whether the employer is taking steps to protect workers exposed to the heat.
It is not known how many workers have been injured or killed in Italy this summer due to extreme heat. However, the country is estimated to have had the highest number of deaths in Europe as a result of last year’s high temperatures – more than 12,000.
Italy’s health agency has said in the past that heat-related industrial accidents are almost never classified as fainting, falling or the like.
Most of those who work in the fields in the summer heat are immigrants from countries such as India and sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the billions of euros generated by Italy’s lucrative food industry, harvesting roles come with low wages, long hours and a lack of work rights.
Conditions of slavery
Unions say many workers live in ghettos and abandoned buildings, their employment controlled by gangs who hire and retain a portion of their wages.
Activists in Italy said exploitative bosses and gangs had no problem forcing workers to work in all weathers, with many shifts lasting 10 to 14 hours a day.
In July, Italian police recognized more than two dozen Indian migrants they rescued from a farm in central Italy as “slaves” because of their debts, confiscated passports and dilapidated homes. Last month, a farm worker died after allegedly being left on the road by his employer after an accident in which his hand was amputated.
“When extreme heat is combined with criminal activities in agriculture, it becomes clear that long-time (predicted) tragedies are indeed happening,” says Fabio Ciconte, director of food and agriculture NGO Terra.
Marco Omizzolo, a sociologist at Rome’s La Sapienza University, says at least 30 people have fainted from the heat since June in Agro Pontino (a reclaimed farmland in central Italy about 40 miles from Rome).
Instead of calling 911 and filing a medical report, the employer or supervisor will shadow the worker or give them cold water or coffee before allowing them to continue working.
“Employers and gang members hide everything to avoid legal problems,” says Omizzolo.
“In some cases, the fatigue is so severe that people bleed for days when they go to the toilet,” says Francesco Caruso, a university researcher and union support worker. “It’s almost impossible to work every day, except for the few who have contracts.”
Migrant workers are among those most at risk from extreme heat in Europe and the rest of the world, scientists have warned.
Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment says, “The people who die (from heat stress) are the people we care about the least in society.