CIHEAM Press Review

The usual influx of seasonal workers who come to harvest apples, grapes and olives in Italy has been interrupted. Travel restrictions related to COVID-19 has politicians and farmers worried that key crops will not be picked in time.

Across Italy, African workers living in rural ghettoes, most of them without work, have been left to fend for themselves without even basic protection against Covid-19. In the province of Foggia, thousands of African workers still live in and around the demolished encampment of Borgo Mezzanone, without safety equipment such as masks and disinfectants. The workers’ union USB recently launched a fundraiser to purchase basic necessities and protective equipment to be distributed in the ghettoes in Foggia and Calabria.