The death of migrant worker Satnam Singh sparked protests against exploitative conditions on Italian farms. A recent initiative to open legal pathways to work in the country may actually contribute to keeping migrants in a situation of illegality, experts say.
When Satnam Singh, an undocumented Punjabi laborer, crushed his arm in a machine while working on a farm in Italy last June, his employer’s response was to take the 31-year-old in his van and leave him by the side of the road near his home, where he died. Singh’s severed arm was placed in a fruit basket next to him.
With its advanced economy and ageing population, Italy desperately needs foreign labor. It recently released a new set of rules which target illegal immigration, while opening new paths to legal employment for non-EU workers. However, experts say the new provisions may actually help fuel forced labor, along with other legal, political and cultural factors.
"The violence [of Singh’s case] is uncommon, but the exploitation is widespread," said Francesco Fasani, an economics professor specializing in migration and crime at the University of Milan.
At the time of his death, Singh had been working for his employer Antonello Lovato for two years. He didn’t have a residence permit or a contract. Lovato hoped the accident would go unnoticed, but events ended up taking a different course.
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The Italian exception of 'caporalato'
Singh’s wife called an ambulance and he was transported to Rome. When Singh died two days later, massive protests took place in the region of Latina where he had worked. Unions and community organizations called for an end to 'caporalato', a system of modern slavery in Italy facilitated by gang-masters that recruit migrants in their country of origin to work for landowners.
The government has now issued a new set of quotas known as 'decreto flussi' for work visas issued to seasonal and non-seasonal workers. The number of foreigners allowed in the country has been steadily increasing over the recent years: from 136,000 in 2023; to 151,000 in 2024; and to 165,00 in 2025.
Despite the increase, the quotas "only allow for about half the number of people the government needs to enter the country – it’s a political choice," said Gemma Dipoppa, Professor of Political Science at Brown University.
"This system is a legal fiction," explained Fasani. "The vast majority of people applying for visas are already in Italy working in the shadow economy when their employer tries to legalize them."
For those who do apply from outside the European Union (EU), there is ample evidence that the current system is being used by employers and middlemen to extract money from migrants.
"To apply for the 'nulla osta' (work permit), migrants are asked large sums of money while they are still abroad. Once in Italy, the contract is often not formalized and workers are kept in a situation of illegality," said Dipoppa.
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New regulations create space for criminals to operate
Italy’s quotas for migrants should be read in conjunction with a new bundle of immigration laws called the DDL Sicurezza. One of the provisions in the law prevents irregular migrants from using a cellphone by making it mandatory for sim-card sellers to register the visa information of those buying them. According to Dipoppa, the irregular migrant will therefore "be dependent on someone, and this creates a space for criminals."
Francesco Fasani says Italy still has trouble seeing itself as a country of immigration. "The legislation we currently have in place is over 20 years old and it was conceived by a generation of politicians struggling with the idea of migration," he said.
Various studies show that keeping migrants in an administrative limbo lowers the likelihood of their eventual integration. "Failing to integrate migrants has a big cost. Even if you push for a decrease in irregular migration, it doesn’t solve the bigger problem," said Dipoppa.
"It is the migrants exploited by 'caporali' (middlemen), those that develop diseases, those dying in the fields – those are the ones we need to help," she concluded.