Calabria, Rosarno: oranges are always bitter at the end of another season of exploitation and only with some timid news

ROSARNO – For the ninth consecutive year, the team of the mobile clinic of Physicians for Human Rights (MEDU) returned to work in Calabria in the Piana di Gioia Tauro during the citrus harvesting season, as part of the project “Open countryside: laboratory of territorial practices to promote dignity of life and work”, which involves a large network of local organizations. Also this season, MEDU’s intervention is developed through health assistance and socio-legal guidance to agricultural workers who live in the tent city of San Ferdinando, the container camp of Rosarno, the settlement of Contrada Russo in the municipality of Taurianova and abandoned farmhouses in the hamlet of Drosi, municipality of Rizziconi. In the months of February and March, the teammade up of a coordinator, a doctor, two linguistic-cultural mediators, a socio-legal operator and a logistician, assisted a total of 55 people by carrying out 70 consultations, including medical visits and legal guidance.

Wage irregularities. The assisted population is made up of young men from West African countries, with an average age of 36 and mainly from Mali, Gambia, Senegal and the Ivory Coast. Again this year working conditions are characterized by severe exploitation. Although the daily wage has increased compared to the past – 45-50 euros per day compared to 25-30 in past years – due to the decrease in available manpower, against a job offer that remains high and the consequent increase in “bargaining power” of workers – wage and social security irregularities remain the norm even in the presence of a contract, as well as non-compliance with the rules on sickness, safety, rest, days on payroll, etc.

The effects of the Cutro decree. Very rare are the cases in which there is an employment contract with at least 51 days declared, the minimum wage required to obtain agricultural unemployment. Added to this is the instability of socio-housing conditions, the difficulty of safely reaching inhabited centers and workplaces, the precariousness of legal conditions, also in the light of the latest regulatory changes implemented by the central government, especially with regard to the modification of the residence permit for Special Protection, which one third of the assisted laborers held. The new so-called Cutro Decree has in fact introduced very restrictive conditions for its obtaining and renewal, consequently those who do not possess the requisites to convert the Special Protection into a residence permit for work reasons, are at a high risk of falling into irregularity.

Pathologies of the osteo-articular and digestive systems. As for health conditions, as every year they appear to be closely correlated to living and working conditions, with a prevalence of pathologies of the osteo-articular and digestive systems, due to the characteristics of agricultural work, the lack of suitable housing and extremely poor nutrition. The living conditions in the informal settlements sometimes appear even more precarious than in past years: tents and shacks built with makeshift materials, heaps of rubbish inside and near the settlements, lack of minimum security conditions.

Risk of fires and no firefighters nearby. In this regard, despite the high risk of fires due to the makeshift stoves or improvised fires used by the laborers to warm up, there is no Fire Brigade at the tent city, where over 700 live during the peak harvest months. people. On the other hand, some interventions aimed at improving housing conditions are about to take place, albeit at the end of the season. This is in particular the “Borgo Sociale”, in the Municipality of Taurianova, in Contrada Russo, created as part of the Su.Pr.Eme interregional project financed by the Calabria region through the European Commission’s Emergency Migrant Asylum Integration Fund (FAMI). The “Borgo” consists of twenty-four housing modules (containers) with four beds each, intended to accommodate 96 people among those who have lived for years in the informal settlement of Taurianova.

The Village of Solidarity. Inside, a soccer field, a laundry and a changing room, a place for prayer and a common room have also been set up. However, the field, completed at the end of 2022, is not yet accessible to laborers due to the lack of electricity. In Rosarno, on the other hand, the transfer of 17 people who have presented a request to the housing units of the “Village of Solidarity” located in Contrada Carmine and intended mainly for workers who live at the container field of Testa dell’Acqua is imminent. A housing solution that is not easily accessible for the laborers of the Piana, since it is necessary to submit a request by attaching the residence permit, an identity document and the work contract, accompanied by a request for inclusion by the employer, the which must specify the type of contract and attach the UNILAV form.

The active involvement of workers. While waiting to see the described institutional interventions materialize, a virtuous and replicable example is proposed by civil society. For more than a year, in January 2022, the “Dambe So” hostel opened its doors, on the initiative of Mediterranean Hope, a project of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy (FCEI). It is a structure located within the local urban fabric, which combines the themes of living and working and proposing a sustainable model, based on the active involvement of workers as subjects of rights and citizenship, on the social responsibility of local producers, on the ethical supply chain and economic sustainability. One year after its launch, the results seem encouraging, demonstrating how combining health, work, rights and territorial development is a possible horizon, but only by overcoming the emergency and ghetto approach and first addressing the issues of rights and of the dignity of work.

advanced requests. Faced with the picture described, characterized by a decrease in the number of workers present in the Plain, by unacceptable working and housing conditions, precarious health conditions, institutional projects that seem close to being launched, MEDU, CRIC, ARCI, Nuvola Rossa, Dispes- Unical, RECOSOL request that:

– Institutions encourage legality in labor relations, through policies to support small producers and greater controls in the workplace

– All informal settlements that are in conditions of extreme degradation are definitively dismantled and the housing solutions prepared are made truly accessible, with clear and effective management methods

– Invest in setting up widespread living projects, capable of reconciling living and working, on the model of the “Dambe So” hostel

– The previous conditions for the recognition and renewal of the Special Protection are reintroduced, to avoid an increase in the number of illegal immigrants, more exposed to illegality and exploitation.

Funding. MEDU’s intervention is co-financed by Latter-day Saint Charities and the Foundation with the South. The project “Open Campaigns” sees CRIC, the Regional Intervention Center for ETS Cooperation, as the responsible entity and involves a large local partnership (MEDU , ARCI, Mediterranean Hope, Nuvola Rossa, Dispes-Unical, RECOSOL). The objective is to contribute to launching integrated and systemic interventions aimed at strengthening processes of liberation from labor exploitation and social isolation of foreign agricultural workers in the territory of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria.