Two Indian nationals have been arrestಌed for allegedly enslaving 33 farm labourers, all from India, in Italy's Verona province, according to a media report, weeks after the country wa♔s shocked by the tragic death of a Sikh farm worker who bled to death.
Finance police also seized assets worth 475,000 euros from the suspects, who own two agricultural sector⭕ companies with no employees on the books and are allegedly total tax evaders, ANSA news agency reported on Saturday.
The twওo alleged gangmasters were arrested on Saturday and are under investigation for crimes, including enslavement and labour exploitation, the Italian news agency said.
The issue of modern forms of slavery in Italy recently came to the fore of media attention following the case of 31🤡-year-old Sikh farm labourer Satnam Singh, who bled to d꧒eath after being abandoned by his employer after a strawberry wrapping machine severed his arm in Lazio, near Rome, last month.
Si♔ngh, who was an Indian national, died due to "copious bleeding", ꦇthe ANSA news agency earlier reported.
On Ju🔥ne 26, India asked Italy to take prompt action against those responsible for Singh's death.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said last month that Singh, one of thousands of Indian immigrants who work th🐟e fields in the country, was the victim of🅰 "inhuman acts".
"These are inhumane acts 🌟that do not belong to the Italian people. I hope that this barbarity will be punished harshly,” she said following a Cabinet meeting.
Gangmastering and the often v♐iolent exploitation of migrant farm labourers is a chronic problem in Italy, especially in the south of the country.
Latina hosts thousands of immigrant labourers, many of them Sikhs, working picking fruit and vegetables for the local 'agro-mafia', accordi✃ng to Italian media reports.
Workplace accident insurance agency IN꧙AIL said recently that fatal accidents in Italy had risen by four to 268 in the first four months of this year.
There were about 100 last year, it said.
