The migrant workers staged a sit-in and demonstration in front of the local prefecture in Foggia on Tuesday (August 1).

The protest was organized after fires destroyed shacks in a shantytown located on a former runway of the ex-airport of Borgo Mezzanone, near the city of Foggia. Two fires broke out within just a few days of one another, destroying not just the living quarters of several migrants, but also their documents and personal belongings, according to demonstrators. No one died in the two fires.

Not the first fire at the migrant camp

Over the years, there have been several fires at the Borgo Mezzanone shantytown -- including deadly ones. In June 2020, a Senegalese man was killed in a fire. In October of last year, a fire destroyed ten shacks. And in January, two people died in their sleep of carbon monoxide inhalation from a fire they had set to keep them warm.

Migrants' and workers' rights activists have repeatedly decried the conditions in which many migrant farmworkers live and work in agricultural areas of Italy, including in the Foggia region.

The demonstrators on Tuesday called for housing support for affected migrants. They also demanded better working conditions and the regularization of undocumented migrant workers. Migrants at the sit-in said that the extreme heat registered over the past few weeks "makes living in makeshift housing even harder."

"In 2023, workers continue not to have regular contracts. Those of us who have to renew a [residence] paper can wait up to six months for an appointment and as many [months] to obtain the permit. We are not happy living in the ghetto," a migrant said. "I would like to find accommodation in Foggia. But without a paycheck or a regular contract nobody wants to rent to us."

Unions support migrant farmworkers' protest

The demonstration on Tuesday was supported by the local chapter of labor union CGIL. Local leaders of the union and its affiliate FLAI-CGIL, which represents farmworkers, were also present at the protest.

On the day of the protests, union representatives reportedly also met with local prefect Maurizio Valiante. One of the topics discussed at the meeting was housing for the migrants living at the shantytown. According to reports from local media, an agreement was reached that 130 housing modules would be made available in August, and another 150 modules would be opened in the following months.

Within the asylum reception system CARA (Centri di Accoglienza per Richiedenti Asilo), 130 modules with room for 400 migrants would be made available by August 31, local news site Foggia Today reported.

Both migrants and union representatives have long criticized local authorities for not doing enough to help shantytown residents into better housing.

Protesters said that there had been an "absence of any certainty" that the migrants whose shacks were destroyed would be transferred to live in housing modules to be set up by local authorities.

Another shantytown housing migrants cleared

Meanwhile, on Sunday morning, another shantytown housing migrant farmworkers in the province of Foggia, in the Contessa area near Stornara, was cleared by authorities. It had been set up a decade ago and had housed as many as 500 people at certain points over the years. Most recently, some 150 Bulgarian citizens -- including 40 children -- had been living there. They were transferred to new temporary lodgings in the area of Visciolo.

The adults had regular permits, local authorities said. Speaking before meeting the prefect on Tuesday, the secretary general of CGIL Foggia, Maurizio Carmeno, said housing is a "problem that needs answers from institutions."

"We have funding of over €100 million pledged to the province of Foggia to eliminate ghettos and the gang-master system, but no project has been activated yet", he noted. "Many are without documents because legislation in Italy is penalizing."

He said that "there is little personnel" at the local prefecture and police headquarters to process applications and issue documents for foreigners. Ten employees of the local prefecture will retire in September, while police headquarters "only have two operators handling relations with migrants," according to Carmeno. He also criticized the authorities for allegedly giving preferential treatment to higher-earning migrant workers. "A worker who is well paid and has a regular labour contract can access a number of rights,, he said.