Rosarno, a call to reflect on workers' rights
Wednesday, 13 January 2010 15:30 | 
13th January 2010: The way the Italian authorities are handling the situation following the revolt of African immigrants in Rosarno should make each one of us seriously reflect on immigration and rights of workers in the country.
More attention is being paid to the debate on immigration, on the legal status of immigrants who took part in the revolt, on tougher measures to be introduced against illegal immigration, but almost nothing is being said and done about the conditions in which they were working. It seems that the bosses who hired and exploited immigrants in Rosarno don’t exist.
No Italian politician can sincerely affirm that he/she doesn’t know that so many immigrants work and live in inhuman conditions like those in Rosarno.
It has always been known that immigrants in Rosarno, just as those in many other parts of this civil State, do undeclared work, are underpaid, and live not only in intolerable but in inhuman conditions.
Politicians, however, have never wanted to act to solve the problem because they don’t seem to see it as a problem. This vision of reality makes me ask myself what’s the politicians’ concept of the human being, of an immigrant, of work.
A human being can suffer, be exploited, become a victim of any type of violence, but if all these things happen silently, nothing is done to solve the problems.
Only when something happens that provokes people’s hunger, that forces them to react and disrupt public peace, that attracts the attention of the media, then that’s the moment politicians decide to act.
Unfortunately, even when they decide to act, they simply do so to restore apparent public order, to let peace return to the city.
But they do absolutely nothing to solve the problem at its roots. Taking away African immigrants from Rosarno is not a solution to the problem. Today they are going away; tomorrow other immigrants will arrive because there is something that attracts them there: the possibility of finding work,
even if it is a poorly paid job.
Many of these workers are legal immigrants who have lost their jobs, and asylum seekers who unfortunately don’t have means of survival.
Unfortunately, the same Government that denies asylum seekers the right to work, also doesn’t provide them the necessary support for living a dignified life. This is why many of them accept to do undeclared work and to live in inhuman conditions. They simply don’t have a choice.
There should be more effective inspections and controls in the agricultural firms, and other sectors to ensure that workers are paid the right minimum wages. The same should be done to ensure the employers make social security contributions. It is important to remember that a worker who is paid the right wage can afford decent accommodation.
The system must stop allowing agricultural entrepreneurs to continue exploiting cheap immigrant labour and using undeclared work.
It’s time to begin respecting the rights of workers, the rights of all workers including illegal immigrants.
By Stephen Ogongo
Last Updated (Friday, 05 February 2010 08:08)