Mamadou Sey, a Gambian citizen legally residing in Italy, was found dead on January 22 in the area of Torretta Antonacci, a settlement in the countryside near the southern city of Foggia, in the Puglia region.
The lifeless body of a Gambian citizen, 38-year-old Mamadou Sey, who was legally residing in Italy, was discovered in the late afternoon of January 22 in Torretta Antonacci, a settlement in the countryside of San Severo near Foggia.
Several hundred migrants live in the shantytown.
The man allegedly died of natural causes. A first exam of his body, in fact, showed no signs of violence, police sources said. Police officers were alerted about the death by migrants living at the camp. The body was handed back to family members by judicial authorities, who did not order an autopsy.
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USB union announces demonstration in front of the Prefecture
A delegation of residents of Torretta Antonacci will stage a demonstration in front of the Prefecture of Foggia on January 29 to ask for a meeting with the Prefect, the USB union announced in a statement after the death of the Gambian citizen.
"We want concrete answers. We expect respect and dignity. We are workers, not dead meat", USB wrote in the note, demanding an end to the "endless slaughter" of migrant workers in the countryside around Foggia.
"Our requests are clear and non-negotiable -- a home for all farmworkers, a dignified and regular job, documents for all and the respect of laws on international protection by the central police department, extensions and the immediate use of NRRP (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) funds to scrap shantytowns and end exploitation and gangmastering," wrote USB.
The union called the man's death a "State murder."
"Mamadou's name joins an already long list of State deaths that doesn't seem to have an end in the ghettos around Foggia."
Donato Di Lella, the leader of the Foggia chapter of farmworkers' union FAI CISL, highlighted "the future, possible health emergency within ghetto camps, including Torretta Antonacci, where the migrant was found dead.
"Migrants arrive in the ghettos when they are young and remain there for up to 10 years, during which they rarely have access to healthcare. There are interventions carried out by local health authorities (ASL ) and by the mobile clinics of volunteer groups, but migrants often prefer not to use them", he noted.
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Coldiretti Puglia calls for 'dignified living and labor conditions'
"The migrants who arrive in Puglia need to be taken out of a condition of invisibility, because they represent a structural and key resource for the country's economy and an indispensable component to safeguard the achievements of Made in Italy", said the Puglia chapter of farmers' association Coldiretti, commenting on the death of Mamadou Sey.
For this reason, Coldiretti in Foggia has started programs "of transparency and protection", it said, including services such as "fiscal assistance, transportation to the workplace, help to understand payslips, social and healthcare support and vaccinations", the organisation said in a statement.
"It is a model of agricultural development that offers great job opportunities, but which must be based on legality, certified rules and transparency", stressed Mario De Matteo, the president of Coldiretti Foggia: "It is fundamental to put farms in the condition of truly benefiting from the contribution of non-EU workers, freeing them from invisibility."
According to Coldiretti, "it is urgent to simplify hiring procedures, especially during the harvest season, when the demand for seasonal workers grows significantly".
According to the association's data, "overall, in Puglia, out of the 152,000 seasonal farmworkers, some 43,000 are foreign workers, or 28 percent. At a regional level, the percentage ranges from 17 percent of Lecce to 25 percent of Bari, while Foggia's figure definitely tops the provincial average. Nearly 88 percent of non-EU farmworkers have a seasonal job, and they make up about 10 percent of workers who are regularly employed in agriculture."
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