Tounkara Karamoko, 28, from Mali, arrived in the slums of the Mezzanone area -- referred to by many as "the ghetto" -- just over five months ago.

On Wednesday morning, September 11, he was on his way to work in the fields with a friend and fellow national, a 25-year-old, when their scooter was suddenly struck by a car. Tounkara did not survive. The impact of the crash was too violent and he died on the spot.

His friend was taken to the policlinic Riuniti where he is hospitalized and is in serious condition.

The person driving the car who ran them over did not stop to help them. The driver drove for a few meters and then abandoned the car near the site where he had run over the two men, and went running into hiding in the nearby countryside.

Some other drivers passing by saw the two bodies on the tarmac and called the police authorities. The investigators are working to find the driver who ran them over.

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Victims lived in makeshift lodgings in Mezzanone area

Tounkara had come to Puglia to find work and was prepared to endure the tough conditions of field labor. He had arrived from Cosenza and, like hundreds of other foreign laborers who crowd the area each summer, he lived in the Mezzanone settlement, a few kilometers from Foggia. In the countryside of the surrounding provincial towns, where the harsh heat is relentless, many seek employment as field workers. They live as best they can, in makeshift shacks, often without access to running water or sanitary facilities.

It appears he did not have relatives in Italy, and he worked as an agriculture field laborer as a daily worker, working in different fields of the Foggia province.

The other man on the scooter with him, a 25-year-old, also lived in the settlement. However, he had been there much longer, approximately two years.

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Unions denounce government's lack of action

"Once again, foreign workers are the victims of road accidents in Puglia, particularly in the Foggia area, where despite the high demand for field laborers, there is no plan in place to provide adequate shelter, housing, or access to public transport," the ARCI association (Associazione Ricreativa e Culturale Italiana) stated in a note. "This lack of infrastructure forces these individuals to live in dire sanitary conditions and far from their workplaces, often risking their lives during their daily commute."

"We ask ourselves what happened to the PNRR funding destined to constructing buildings and hygienic services for foreign laborers, whose presence, it is important to remind the government, guarantees the arrival of food on our tables and whose presence is indispensable for the national economy. It is unacceptable that resources cannot be found for a public transport service to guarantee that during harvesting time transfers to work are safe," the association added.

Gianni Palma, Secretary General of the Chamber of Labor of Foggia, and Giovanni Tarantella, Secretary General of the provincial Union Flai Cgil, also criticized the government's inaction and that of the designated commissioners for the ghetto emergency. They highlighted the need to utilize the over 50 million euros from the PNRR funding -- out of the total 200 million euros allocated—to implement a project that ensures foreign workers have access to adequate shelter, housing conditions, and true social inclusion.

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