«Little food and no light, this is how they treated the boys»- Corriere.it

«They promised me many things. A contract, a job, a salary. I worked for six months. No contract and no salary. But the thing that hurts me is having seen those kids treated like this: little to eat, many times without water, electricity and heating. The pocket moneyinstead of every day, just every once in a while.” Mohammed el Motarajji frowns, perturbed. It is slightly larger than those minors who came from Libya, Albania and Bangladesh welcomed into the facility run by Aboubakar Soumahoro’s mother-in-law, Marie Therese Mukamitsindo: a family home where he, a civil engineering student, came from Morocco to work and be able to continue pay for college, he thought he had achieved his dream.

To propose it to him Aline, the daughter of Marie Therese: «At first I had to be a translator, then a computer scientist. But when I asked for the contract they always answered me: “Tomorrow”». That “tomorrow” never came. «In the end we made an agreement with Marie Therese to get less, 5,000 euros, but immediately. We signed. I waited. But I didn’t get anything », he tells al Courier Muhammad

. He shows that document, shrugs and smiles anyway. It started from scratch. With the courage of 22 years. The same one that prompted two of the minors in the facility to flee to France.

Others, guests or employees of the facility, no longer want to talk. They are afraid”. So far they have turned only, and not all, to the Uil-tuc union. So the investigations by the Latina prosecutor’s office focus on the main line, the one delegated to the Guardia di Finanza, which sees Marie Therese Matsukindo under investigation for embezzlement, with the hypothesis that the ministerial funds destined for the reception of migrants have been distracted and destined for other . No complaints have been presented to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, to the Finance Department or even to the Carabinieri, on the other hand, of episodes such as those described by Mohammed which, if verified, could reveal the contours of a sort of exploitation of those minors.

Even the hasty elimination of documents remains a mystery for now: eight black plastic bags full of files and papers relating to the immigrants welcomed. A passerby, intrigued by the comings and goings under the registered office of the cooperatives attributable to Marie Therese, noticed them and reported them to the carabinieri of the Latina provincial command who immediately seized them. Also due to the coincidence in time between the outbreak of the case and the purge of documents.

On the other hand, the evidence seems to be clearer on the fact that several employees were paid little and badly. There are testimonies, papers and official documents attesting to violated agreements, non-contracted services, interventions by the union to obtain the “replacement” payment of the salary by the prefecture which occurred in four cases of unpaid employees after working at the cooperative managed by the mother-in-law and, until two months ago, by Soumahoro’s wife.

In addition to the Guardia di Finanza, inspectors from the Ministry of Labor are currently at work on this issue. They are concluding an activity that began, they say, months ago on the basis of complaints from some workers.

While the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy is examining the results of the review that was carried out by Confcooperative and uploaded to the Mise portal only a few days ago: it was supposed to be completed by March. At the end of these investigations it will be assessed whether the situation is sustainable or whether Karibu and Consorzio Aid are liable to receivership.