Italian authorities have arrested 52 people who allegedly belonged to an organisation that exploited hundreds of migrant farmworkers, who were called "monkeys" by their gangmaster bosses.
"Tomorrow where should we send the monkeys?" That's how members of two groups of illegal gangmasters, Italians and foreigners, allegedly referred to the hundreds of migrants of various nationalities that they exploited for farmwork. The migrants were allegedly paid miserably low wages and made to live in precarious sanitary conditions.
The two groups that reportedly made up the criminal organisation were identified by the Cosenza finance police, under the directives of the Castrovillari state attorney's office.
52 suspects were arrested in two southern Italian regions, Calabria and Basilicata. 14 were sent to jail and 38 are on house arrest. The authorities also seized 14 farms -- 12 in the province of Matera and two in the province of Cosenza.
The total value of the seized farms is more than eight million euros.
Eight other people are still under investigation, the preliminary hearing judge ordered mandatory check-ins with judiciary police for them.
Among the suspects are both Italians and foreigners from Pakistan, Northwest Africa, and Eastern Europe.
More than 200 migrant victims of exploitation
Finance police said the suspects illegally exploitated of farmworkers -- they practiced illegal gangmastering, which is also known as caporalato in Italy. They are also accused of
facilitated illegal immigration.
According to the charges against the suspects, the owners of the farms took part in the exploitation of more than 200 migrants. Male migrants were hired to do the heaviest work, while female migrants were put to work on the less strenuous job of harvesting strawberries.
Among the 60 suspects are 16 alleged gangmasters who reportedly recruited the farmworkers and organized the exploitation operation, 22 of the suspects are farm owners.
One of the suspects on house arrest is an employee of the city of Corigliano Rossano who allegedly, in exchange for significant sums of money, arranged "marriages" to secure Italian stay permits for undocumented workers, and who allegedly also facilitated the arrival of migrants from abroad through the use of stay permits for family reunification.