Covid-19, like a litmus test, brought out the plagues of society. A public health care unhinged by disinvestment, severe inequalities at the expense of the most vulnerable, an agriculture still plagued by agromafias and caporalato.
There is now an urgent need to regularize foreign workers in agriculture, also to ensure the security of fruit and vegetable supplies in Italy. And in other areas, for the dignity of community participants and the health of the community. Petition.
Act now to protect workers and agriculture in Italy
Flai CGIL and Earth. Nonprofit made an appeal on 3/20/20 to President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and Ministers Teresa Bellanova (Agriculture), Nunzia Catalfo (Labor), Lamorgese (Interior), Roberto Speranza (Health), and Provenzano (South). (1)
Prefects, the letter points out, are given new powers in this regard. In fact, they ‘may adopt provisions aimed at securing migrants and asylum seekers in the territory by setting up or requisitioning properties for housing purposes.
Due to Covid-19 there has been a massive return by migrant farm workers from Romania and Bulgaria. Expected arrivals from Poland [and various other countries, ed.] zeroed out. Non-EU workers who are in irregular status can plug this gap, but they must be guaranteed basic rights.
Many foreigners now find themselves in irregular conditions exacerbated by the security decrees and do not go looking for work for fear of being stopped at checkpoints. Therefore, their regularization is essential, to bring out those who are forced to live and work in irregular conditions. […]
It is necessary, therefore, to strengthen measures to combat undeclared labor and encourage the hiring of those who are working illegally by enforcing agricultural collective bargaining agreements.’
According to more recent estimates (ISPI, 2020) there are about 600,000 irregular migrants. (2) They generally live in small, overcrowded living quarters, sometimes in shacks without toilets. They also work in poor health and resort to medical assistance only in cases of serious illness. Too late, evidently, to contain possible contagion.
At the end of March
the Ministry of the Interior provided initial, but partial and transitory, feedback. Automatically extending the expiration of residence permits, for seasonal workers until 6/15/20. However, without solving either the summer emergency or the underlying structural problem.
Regularize all workers, the petition
Regularization is essential not only for laborers, but also for domestic helpers and caregivers. Therefore, it is necessary to supplement the draft decree law under current discussion, which limits this possibility to the agriculture, fishing and forestry sectors.
More than 360 university professors propose that all undocumented foreigners should be issued a residence permit for asylum, to be used immediately for registration with the SSN (National Health Service) and the Job Center.
Employers must bring out irregular positions with declarations to enable migrants to obtain residence and temporary work permits. Among other things, regularization makes it possible to help finance the onerous public commitments needed to overcome the crisis.
The petition Rights and Dignity for Invisible Laborers, addressed to Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, can be signed through the link %C3%.
Farmer agriculture, the urgent priorities
ARI-the Italian Rural Association, or Assorurale-along with AIAB (Italian Association for Organic Agriculture), represents the peasant agriculture movement in Italy. Under the international coordination of
la Via Campesina
, consisting of 182 organizations in 81 countries.
Therefore, the urgent priorities indicated by ARI – Assorurale at this historical stage, as is logical, are:
– amnesty and regularization of all migrants working in the countryside to ensure their access to essential rights. Decent wages, job security, health care,
– employment contracts. Agricultural vouchers are to be used only in the cases already provided for by law, namely for pensioners, students and the unemployed within a ceiling of € 5 thousand/year per company.
Assorurale also urges the recognition and protection ofpeasant agriculture, including through a law that has already been finalized but is still awaiting approval, in the Italian Parliament, for more than 10 years. (3)
Dario Dongo and Giulia Caddeo
Notes
(1) https://www.ispionline.it/it/pubblicazione/migrazioni-italia-tutti-i-numeri-24893
(2) http://www.terraonlus.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Lettera_braccianti_Covid19_5M.pdf
(3) ARI – Assorurale. COVID 19. The peasant economy and the impact to come. 5.5.20, http://www.assorurale.it/fase_2_che_fare.html
Graduated in law, master in Food, Law & Finance. You have explored the theme of green procurement and urban food policies in the International Cooperation and Peace sector of the City of Turin.
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
