Two Egyptian migrant workers, who were employed off the books died on Monday, August 4, after falling into a septic tank they were cleaning in the province of Venice. A probe into the accident has found that the two did not have the proper training nor the security equipment required for the job.
Magistrates have opened an investigation against unknown persons on potential manslaughter charges.
Two Egyptian workers are dead after falling into a septic tank they were cleaning at a private property in the town of Santa Maria di Sala, in the province of Venice. The workers were employed off the books and died without being aware of the risks involved in their job, investigative sources said.
Investigators are now trying to determine who ordered them to clean the septic tank without the proper training and security equipment.
Sayed Abdelwahab Mahmoud, 39, and Ziad Saad Abdou Mustafa, who would have turned 22 in September, fell into the tank used for biological waste and died after inhaling toxic gas.
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Untrained
The local health authority ULSS reported the presence in the tank of a lethal gas, hydrogen sulfide.
Sayed and Ziad had not been trained for the job of cleaning the underground septic tank of a large villa which had in the past hosted a craft business.
More recently, the residence was used as a hosting facility for immigrants. A third worker raised the alarm following the incident.
However, when firefighters and Carabinieri police, together with technicians from the Labor prevention and security service (Spisal), rushed to the scene, the two workers were already dead. Firefighters could only pull their bodies out of the tank.
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Prosecutors open probe on manslaughter charges
Prosecutors in Venice have opened a probe, for the time being against unknown persons, on potential charges of manslaughter. The two workers had no contract and were not registered as working for any firm, investigative sources said. According to the preliminary results of the investigation, the pair were allegedly employed off the books by a moving company and worked as porters.
Investigators believe they were allegedly sent by someone to check on the work done by a specialized company that had previously cleaned the septic tank at the property located in Via Desman in the area of Veternigo.
The owner of the villa, a woman from Moldova who had nothing to do with the incident, allegedly asked the moving company she had previously used to check whether the sewage cleaning company had done a proper job.
The two workers, who had recently moved to Italy, had applied for international protection. Investigators are now trying to understand who contacted the two asylum seekers, who had traveled to Italy a few months ago in search of a better life and instead lost their lives.
"The two workers who died yesterday at Santa Maria di Sala were being employed off the books - a very grave fact that once again sheds light on the fact that part of our economy is illegal, to the detriment of workers," commented Daniele Giordano, the secretary general of the Venice chapter of Italy's largest labor union CGIL.
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