Rome/New Delhi, (UNI) The widow of an Indian farm labourer whose horrific death has shocked Italy and raised calls to smash gangmastering has received a special “justice” stay permit to end her illegal status in Italy, a report said.
Satnam Singh, 31, was dumped outside his hut outside Latina south of Rome on Monday with his arm, severed by a farm machinery accident, placed beside him in his strawberry picking basket.
He died in a Rome hospital Wednesday after losing so much blood that it was impossible for him to recover from his injuries.
His widow Soni, who was treated for shock after the incident, was granted the justice permit at the Latina passport office in Palazzo M, Ansa reported.
Premier Giorgia Meloni said Singh, one of thousands of Indian immigrants who work the fields at Latina, was the victim of “inhuman acts”.
His employer Antonello Lovato has been charged with negligent manslaughter.
Meanwhile, Labour Minister Marina Calderone said it was “everybody’s aim to declare war on gangmastering’ after meeting unions and employers following the death of Satnam Singh.
The death of the Sikh farm hand has spurred outrage at the gangmasters who left him for dead, and calls for action to root out the phenomenon, which is rife in Italy, especially in the south of the country.
“We had a meeting with the representatives of the employers’ associations and trade unions of the agricultural world to reason together about what has already been done by the government and what will be done, but first of all to say clearly, distinctly, and without any possibility of misunderstanding, that the aim of everyone is to declare war on gangmastering,” Calderone told a press conference.
Latina, a Mussolini-founded new town south of Rome that is home to thousands of immigrant farm workers, is to hold a day of civic mourning for Singh.
