New Delhi/Rome, June 26 (UNI) India has asked Italy to take prompt action against those responsible for the death of Satnam Singh, an Indian farm labourer who was abandoned by his Italian employer after a strawberry wrapping machine severed his arm in Latina last week.
India is also in contact with the family of Satnam Singh for consular help and transportation of his mortal remains.
The Indian Embassy in Rome, in a post on X, said:
“Muktesh Pardeshi @SecretaryCPVOIA conveyed to @LuigiVignali Italian DG our deep concern about death of Satnam Singh & called for prompt action against those responsible. Embassy is in contact with family of Satnam Singh for consular help &transportation of mortal remains.”
Luigi Maria Vignali is the Director General for Italian Citizens Abroad and Migration Policies.
Meanwhile, the autopsy of Satnam Singh has revealed that he died due to “copious bleeding”.
According to Ansa news, Doctors tried in vain to save the 31-year-old Indian national’s life for two days.
The death of the Sikh farm hand has spurred outrage at gangmastering, which is widespread in Italy, especially in the south of the country, and other modern forms of slavery.
Unions, politicians and members of the Indian community staged a big demonstration calling for action on Saturday in Latina, a Mussolini-founded new town south of Rome that is home to thousands of migrant farm workers.
Labour Minister Marina Calderone said Friday that it was “everybody’s aim to declare war on gangmastering” after meeting unions and employers.
Satnam Singh was dumped outside his hut outside Latina south of Rome last week with his arm, severed by a farm machinery accident, placed beside him in his strawberry picking basket.
He died in a Rome hospital two days later after losing so much blood that it was impossible for him to recover from his injuries.
His widow Soni was treated for shock after the incident.
His employer Antonello Lovato has been charged with negligent manslaughter.
Premier Giorgia Meloni said Singh, one of thousands of Indian immigrants who work the fields at Latina, was the victim of “inhuman acts”.
Meanwhile, a Bangladeshi worker died in hospital in Mestre near Venice on Tuesday from injuries sustained in a fall at the Fincantieri shipyard at Marghera near the lagoon city, Ansa reported.
The man, Islam Miah, fell at around eight o’clock at night on Monday. A local union declared a two hour strike in solidarity with Miah’s relatives and in his memory.
The incident is the latest in long spate of fatal workplace accidents in Italy.
Almost 500 people have been killed in work accidents in Italy so far this year, the national observatory on the phenomenon said Friday.
There were about 1,000 last year, it said.
Five men died after inhaling toxic gas in a sewer network near Palermo last month, and seven died in a hydro power plant blast near Bologna in April.
Eight workers were injured, five critically, in an explosion at an aluminium plant in Bolzano last week. One has since died of his injuries while others are said to be still fighting for their lives from their critical burns.
