Disastrous living conditions for labourers against million-dollar still unused housing facilities.

For the tenth consecutive year, MEDU has been present in the Gioia Tauro Plain to provide medical assistance and legal support to laborers employed in citrus harvesting. A team offering medical assistance and legal guidance, supported by two cultural mediators, operates three days a week in the precarious settlements of the Plain. The team reaches approximately 1500 foreign agricultural laborers residing in the abandoned rural houses, the dilapidated ministerial tent city, and the old containers scattered among the municipalities of Rosarno, San Ferdinando, and Taurianova.

The settlements’ population consists of young men with an average age of 35 coming from sub-Saharan West Africa, particularly Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Ghana, and Ivory Coast. Despite many of them have been living in Italy for several years – 88% for more than 3 years – they continue to face exclusion, job insecurity, and exploitation.

It is noteworthy that 92% of the 94 people assisted in the first quarter of 2023 from a health or socio-legal perspective, possessed regular residence documents in Italy. Specifically, a significant portion of workers held residence permits for asylum application (39%), subsidiary protection (22%), special protection (22%), subordinate employment or seasonal work (15%). Only 1% had refugee status, and an additional 1% had a residence permit for employment waiting.

The dire conditions described in previous years, since MEDU first reached the Plain in 2013, appear even more grotesque and paradoxical today. This is evident when comparing the inhumane images of life in informal settlements to those of completed but never opened container camps or recently renovated, buildings intended, confiscated to mafia to promote dignified living. Five and a half million euros have been spent to date on housing that has never been used. Of these, 3 million come from the European Union for the construction of six buildings with a total of 36 apartments in Rosarno. An additional 2 million was allocated by the Ministry of the Interior for the creation of the “Village of Solidarity” on land seized from the Bellocco clan. Finally, 650,000 euros were invested in the construction of a never-activated Multipurpose Center in Contrada Donna Livia, in the municipality of Taurianova.

In the face of delays and hesitancy from institutional initiatives, a courageous and forward-thinking example is proposed by civil society. For two years, the hostel for laborers “Dambe So” has been operating in San Ferdinando, initiated by the Mediterranean Hope project of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy (FCEI). Two years after its launch, the project has accommodated dozens of people in several apartments and recently opened a new accommodation in the municipality of Taurianova. It is an ambitious yet economically and socially sustainable project, involving active participation of workers as rights and citizenship subjects, as well as the local community.

The extreme degradation, abandonment, and illegality in informal settlements are symptoms of a chronic problem afflicting the socio-economic reality of the Plain. Amidst commissioner appointments, economic and demographic crises, undeclared work, widespread illegality, collapsing healthcare, migrants and asylum seekers forced to live in inhumane conditions for seasonal citrus harvesting – often in the black market and exploitative conditions – appear as a shameful and seemingly incurable plague, repeating like seasons. Thus, at the San Ferdinando tent city, over a thousand laborers sleep from October to March in ministerial tents turned makeshift shacks, without water, light, and heating, at constant risk of fires due to daily cooking and heating fires. Equally dire are the conditions of the dilapidated farmhouse in Contrada Russo, in the municipality of Taurianova – a few meters from the ready and never-opened “Village of Solidarity” – where about 200 people live amidst garbage and rats. The container camp set up after the 2010 Rosarno uprising still stands, providing shelter for about 300 people, the luckiest despite the degradation, as the accommodations at least have electricity and water connections.

These dire living conditions set the stage for exhausting workdays, slightly improving in terms of daily pay but still characterized in most cases by contractual and contributory irregularities. Gray work is the norm, with widespread undeclared work (36% of assisted workers).

Why has nothing changed since the Rosarno uprising on January 7, 2010? Why have millions of euros been invested in housing units never used? Why is the labor force, which is crucial to the local agricultural sector, exploited without implementing housing and socio-occupational inclusion policies for their protection? Why has a decade-long emergency turned into a chronic crisis?

Given the described situation, MEDU and the ‘Open Farms’ project partners strongly call for an immediate and definitive solution. It is essential to quickly eliminate bureaucratic obstacles preventing the opening of housing for laborers and invest in future initiatives like Dambe So, capable of combining housing and work while ensuring economic and social sustainability. Additionally, urgent measures are needed to protect the rights of agricultural workers, often victims of exploitation, starting with control mechanisms and regulation of supply chain policies.

In the short term, it is vital to reinstate a fire department presence near the San Ferdinando tent city, as well as essential services such as drinking water, electricity, and waste collection, to prevent further compromise of residents’ safety.”

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The activity of MEDU takes place within the framework of the project ‘Open Farms. Laboratory of
territorial practices to promote dignity of life and work,’ funded by the Fondazione con il Sud. The
project involves a broad partnership, led by the Regional Intervention Center for Cooperation
(CRIC), with the following partners: Arci Reggio Calabria APS, Association of Churches, Network
of Solidarity Communities (Re.Co.Sol.), Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, Nuvola Rossa APS,
University of Calabria, Medici per i Diritti Umani (MEDU).