Beaten with belts for a moment of rest or taken home and left without care instead of being taken to the hospital after a malaise. These are some of the incidents that have involved foreign agricultural workers emerged from the investigation of the Prosecutor's Office of Santa Maria Capua Vetere on the gangmaster system in the farms of Cellole and Sessa Aurunca, which led to the issuance by the local judge of four bans of residence in the province of Caserta for as many agricultural entrepreneurs from Marano di Napoli, accused of the crimes of labor exploitation and employment of illegal labor.
The investigation, conducted by the Carabinieri of the Labor Inspectorate, started following the checks carried out by the military on the agricultural lands and activated by the anti-gangmaster task force provided with the Su.Pr.Eme project.
The Carabinieri noticed ten foreign workers picking tomatoes, and found out that none of them had a contract, and were forced to work eleven hours a day for seven days for a daily pay of 30-40 euros. Some workers then told the Carabinieri about the violence suffered by gangmasters and agricultural entrepreneurs; thus emerged the case of the worker taken with the belt after sitting on the ground to rest, or another who had been taken ill and taken home instead of some health facility.