In April, roughly 2,000 Sikh workers gathered in Freedom Square, in Italy’s Latina province, to protest against their working conditions and request a minimum hourly wage of five euros – still four less than the legal minimum.
Why don’t Sikhs abroad raise a voice for them???🤔
Men harvest chicory in a field in Sezze in the Italian province of Latina. The Sikh workers have to call the landlord 'Master'.
Singh was full of resolve the day he walked into an Italian police station to report the abuse he was facing in the fields of southern Italy.
"I am a Sikh," says the farm worker from Punjab in northern India. "And when a Sikh takes a decision, he will go forward, no matter what."
Singh knew the risk he was taking. A few days after his visit to the police station, he says, the threats & intimidation began in earnest.
Within a week, he had lost his job and been forced to move home.
“It is not easy for us. Here, we’re foreigners,” says Singh. “I’m afraid to go back [to India] because I have nothing there. But I know what is happening to us here in Italy is wrong.”
According to reports by Medu, an organisation run by Italian doctors, 43% of Sikh migrant farm workers in Italy do not speak Italian, meaning they are effectively cut off from mainstream criminal justice & support services. As well as poor pay & frequent non-payment of wages,
…the organisation identified serious health problems notably chronic back injuries, overcrowded accommodation & exposure to dangerous pesticides as routine for Italy’s Sikh farmers.
Gurmukh Singh runs a small grocery store in Borgo Hermada after working for 14 years under the….
…caporali system. (Megan Williams/CBC). Grocery store owner Gurmukh Singh chats with farm worker Singh Manjit. (Megan Williams/CBC). Addiction to opium, opioids, heroin and anti-spastic drugs among the Sikh workers has mushroomed in recent years.
They say many workers chew dried poppy pods, which contain low levels of morphine and codeine that can lead to addiction.
Sikh workers find solace and solidarity in the local temple, which is housed in the back of a factory. (Megan Williams/CBC)
Text : The Guardian
CBC.
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