One third of farmworkers in the Italian region of Abruzzo are foreign nationals who are forced to work in more precarious conditions than their Italian colleagues, according to an analysis by the Openpolis foundation.
In the Italian region of Abruzzo, one third of farmworkers are foreigners working in more precarious conditions than their Italian counterparts, according to a new analysis released by Openpolis, as part of a project promoted by the Foundation Openpolis, Etipublica, Fondazione Hubruzzo, Gran Sasso Science Institute and StartingUp.
The report, which was published last week, is based on data from the latest census on agriculture drafted by Italian statistics agency ISTAT. According to the data, in 2020 nearly 9,000 (exactly 8,606) EU and non-EU foreigners were employed by agricultural companies which were not owned by a family or individual, accounting for nearly a third of the total number of employees.
However, researchers explained, "although foreigners make up 36.6% of the total workforce in this sector, if we take into consideration long-term contracts, this percentage stops at 28%. On the contrary, when short-term contracts are considered, foreigners represent 40.2% of the total. In other words, non-Italian workers in Abruzzo have more precarious contracts than their Italian colleagues", the study said.
More open to exploitation? Although the gang-master system is a separate issue and is historically less widespread in the region compared to other territories of southern Italy, these figures highlighted how foreigners are more exposed to the risk of exploitation, Openpolis added.
The Placido Rizzotto observatory, which publishes the annual report "Agromafie e caporalato" (mafia in the agricultural sector and the gangmaster system), has highlighted how a number of judicial proceedings against suspected gangmasters have been opened in Abruzzo too in recent years.
They were reported in particular in the province of Teramo and in the area of Fucino, in the province of L'Aquila, and especially in the towns of Avezzano, Pescina and Luco dei Marsi.
Fucino: Key to the agricultural economy Fucino is key for the economy of the Marsica area and of the entire province of L'Aquila boasting 1,000 hectares cultivated with vegetables and potatoes, more than 500 producers, an annual revenue from agriculture of over €20 million, two products (the potatoes of Fucino and carrots of the plane) that have received IGP formal protection as a significant Italian product and some 10,000 workers, especially seasonal farmhands.
Foreign workers are such a resource for local farms that in 2020, the year of the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the provincial chapter of Confagricoltura in the province, the General Confederation of Italian Agriculture, organized charter flights from Morocco for hundreds of workers.
Many have settled down together with their families in the towns around the Marsica plane while others return to their home country after the harvest and try to travel back to Italy the following year. Many workers are perfectly integrated in the communities of the Marsica and in the central areas of Abruzzo but some are exploited by their employers and by gangmasters, noted the report's authors.
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