4 farm workers in Italy burned to death in a car, according to a survivor, police

Four migrants working as fruit pickers in slave-like conditions in southern Italy have been burned to death – a murder case that has sparked a new national call for farm worker exploitation.

The four were found on Monday in a burnt van parked at a petrol station in Andodolara, in the southern region of Calabria. Surveillance cameras showed two people setting the car on fire before fleeing.

“In my 30 years of work, I have never seen such brutality,” public prosecutor Alessandro D’Alessio, who is leading the investigation, told reporters on Wednesday.

One survivor, Taj Mohammad Alamyar, said the migrants were being sent home by their two Pakistani gangsters after a day of picking strawberries.

They stopped at a petrol station, but instead of pouring petrol, they doused the car with petrol and set it on fire after locking the passengers inside, said Alamyar, adding that he was able to escape with the trunk of the car.

“We started screaming, but they opened the back door and threw something light inside.

The suspects were not identified

Roberto Occhiuto, president of the Calabria region, said Italy has deep lessons to learn from this episode.

“It is a shocking story, which shakes our conscience and raises deep questions about the crisis of human migration, the importance of human dignity and the responsibilities that a civilized society has to bear to the most vulnerable,” he said.

The exploitation of migrant workers is a chronic problem in Italy, sometimes with fatal consequences. According to the Placido Rizzotto Observatory think-tank, about 30 percent of farm workers were preparing books by 2023.

In interviews with several Italian media, the survivor of Monday’s attack was seen with bandages on his hands and right arm. He said that three of the dead were his Afghan colleagues and the fourth was from Pakistan.

Prosecutors in the nearby town of Castrovillari said two immigrants were arrested on suspicion of mass murder and brutality.

The suspects were not named, and Reuters could not be reached for comment.

Alamyar said the fruit pickers quarreled with their gangs over money. He said they were promised a daily wage of 45 euros ($72 Cdn) for eight hours of work, but have not received the money since April 20.

The Pope will visit the ports of call for migrants

Pope Leo is scheduled to travel on July 4 to Lampedusa, the Italian island south of Sicily where many migrants first arrive by boat. In April, the Italian coast guard found the bodies of 19 migrants and rescued 58 survivors from a boat that broke down while trying to cross to Europe from Libya.

On Saturday, Leo will leave the Vatican for Spain, where we will visit the migrants from the Canary Islands who braved the dangerous waters of the Atlantic to enter Europe. More than 3,000 people will die by 2025 trying to reach the Canary Islands, usually by boat, according to Caminando Fronteras, a non-governmental organization.

The attack was discovered on the same day European Union lawmakers and governments agreed on new rules allowing countries to send migrants ordered to leave the bloc to facilities in third countries, a move that has drawn heavy criticism from rights groups who warn it could allow abuse.

The deal reached on Monday is part of a wider tightening of the EU’s migration policy amid pressure from right-wing groups, as irregular arrivals fell by 26 percent last year to the lowest level since 2021.

EU countries say they are struggling to ensure asylum seekers and visa overstayers leave their country. The commission says only about 20% of people have been ordered to leave at the moment.

Under the new rules, EU states will be able to establish “places of return” outside the bloc for people whose asylum applications have been rejected or ordered to leave the EU. Deportees can be sent to hubs in countries where they have no connection.