The Latina case

Caporalato, spotlight on bogus companies and connivance in the Pa

Carabinieri investigations aim to unmask the criminal network managing labour in the fields

23 June 2024

3' min read

On the table of the investigators is not only the death of Satnam Singh, the Indian labourer who died in the countryside of Latina, after the amputation of his arm with an agricultural machine and the brutal transportation in front of his house, with the limb thrown into a fruit box. A whole system of illegal labour and exploitation is being investigated, which has been the subject of in-depth investigations by Latina prosecutors and Carabinieri since 2016.

In-depth investigations led to highlighting a series of standardised top figures in labour recruitment and also a system of 'paper' companies with no real activities, only useful for smuggling immigrants with fake work contracts.

The ghost companies

A report sent to the Prefecture, prepared thanks to the files of the provincial Carabinieri command, states that 'the exploitation of Punjabi workers from their areas of origin to the Pontine Marshes, organised through migratory chains, is able to offer a whole package of services at the time of recruitment, including transfer costs, reception on arrival, including accommodation, and job placement mostly in the agro-food sector'.

Exploitation is a story that has been going on here for thirty years. According to the investigators, it is already in this type of recruitment that the first crime takes shape: the demand for money from intermediaries, up to 20,000 euro per person, which forces the immigrant and his family into almost life-long debt. This evidently compromises even more the possibility of emancipating oneself and denouncing caporalato: 'The direct and indirect coercion exerted against the Indians and their vulnerable condition severely affects their capacity for self-determination,' we read further.

The investigators noted this and the trade unions confirmed it: often behind this traffic there are phantom companies that offer a fictitious job, useful only to obtain a nulla osta and bring in an immigrant, who is unlikely to sign a regular contract afterwards. The investigators' report states that there is a 'proliferation of phantom companies - often run by organised crime - which, through the hiring and subsequent dismissal of fake farm labourers, ensure a significant profit on the benefits received by their employees', moreover 'to the detriment of the INPS coffers', because sometimes these companies serve only to make 'reach the number of working days that entitle them to social security benefits'.

What makes this mechanism easier is the organisation of company networks, formally legitimate, within which it is possible to 'rotate' labour without the need to open new contractual positions. A possibility granted by state regulations but which here, according to the investigators, would be misused.

Bracciante morto, la manifestazione a Latina
Photogallery10 foto

Suspicious civil servants

Farms that do not hire and exploit labourers are obviously the main object of investigation, as are paper mills that simulate non-existent contracts. But there is another disturbing element in the report: 'corrupt or corruptible employees or officials belonging to the public administration for the provision of administrative acts at the request of dishonest local agricultural entrepreneurs'. The structure thus appears to consist of two sub-systems of micro-delinquency: 'corporals of Punjabi origin' and 'corrupt employees or officials'.

The apex organisation

The entrepreneur turns to the international market using 'specialised organisations to meet his particular employment need'.

Ecco la mappa del caporalato in Italia

The investigative findings made it possible to identify the following figures belonging to the system the 'caponero', who organises the teams and the transport; the 'taxi driver', who manages the transport; the 'vendor', who arranges the teams and the sale of basic necessities at often very high prices; the 'torturer', who systematically uses violence or takes away identity documents, so as to obtain total control over the migrant; the 'corporal', i.e. the managing director; the 'trusted man', who manages the entire campaign of labour collection on behalf of the entrepreneur.

This type of structure is a real peculiarity of the Pontine area and in particular of the municipalities of Sabaudia, San Felice Circeo, Terracina, Fondi and the areas surrounding the municipality of Latina.

Meanwhile, on the investigation front into the death of Satnam Singh, the number of suspects could rise. For now, only the manager Antonello Lovato is on the list, but the charges could extend to three or four other people.