Africans Protest Poor Working Condition In Italy

Hundreds of mostly African farm labourers downed tools Wednesday and marched from fields in southern Italy chanting "we are not slaves", protesting at conditions for tomato pickers after 16 migrant workers died in two road crashes.

The near-identical accidents within 48 hours of each other highlighted the plight of farm workers around the the city of Foggia in the Puglia region, where thousands of foreign labourers spend the summer season harvesting tomatoes, often at the mercy of recruiters sometimes linked to organised crime.

Striking demonstrators, many wearing red caps, waving flags or carrying tomatoes, walked for three hours in the baking sun from the countryside towards Foggia, shouting: "We are not slaves, no to exploitation."

"You know how much Italian tomatoes cost? The price of African blood," said 41-year-old Kogyate Diakine, from Ivory Coast, who has lived in Italy for more than a decade.

Italy's government has scrambled to respond to the outcry over the deaths, with hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini declaring war on the "mafia" in and around Foggia and promising to eradicate it "street by street, town by town", during a visit to the region on Tuesday.

Both the road crashes in the region happened when lorries transporting tomatoes slammed into vans carrying foreign farm workers returning from their day's work.

An accident on Saturday left four African farm workers dead and four others seriously injured, while another on Monday killed 12 people, all non-EU citizens.





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