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Francis adds voice to those protesting illegal working conditions for "very harshly exploited" migrants
By Nicolas Senèze | Vatican City
Pope Francis has denounced the exploitation of Italy's agricultural workers, mostly migrants lacking proper documents who labor in the countryside.
"I was particularly struck by (their) condition," the pope said at the end of his May 6 virtual general audience in the library of the Apostolic Palace.
He said he had received "several messages about the world of work and its problems" on the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, which Catholics observe on May 1st.
"Unfortunately, many times they are very harshly exploited," the pope said of the migrant workers.
"While the crisis affects everyone, people's dignity must always be respected," he said.
The caporalato system at issue
"That is why I add my voice to the appeal of these workers and all exploited workers and I invite us to turn this crisis into an opportunity to put the dignity of the person and of work at the center," he insisted.
In recent weeks, a number of farm laborers have died in job-related accidents, prompting an outcry against their precarious working conditions.
At the center of concern are migrants who are exploited by something called the caporalato system, through which criminal organizations illegally rent workers to farmers.
Hilal Elver, the United Nations' special rapporteur on the right to food, estimated last year that this system accounted for half of Italy's agricultural labor force.
She denounced working hours that are "too long", "wages too low to cover basic needs" and undocumented migrants "left in limbo, without access to regular jobs".
Italy debates the regularization of 600,000 migrants
Since then, the situation of migrants has further deteriorated with the crisis linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
Italy's Agriculture Minister, Teresa Bellanova, who was a farm worker in Puglia as a young teenager, has called for the regularization of 600,000 of these undocumented workers.
She has the support of two parties in the country's governing coalition -- Italia Viva and the left-leaning Democratic Party.
But the populist 5-Star Movement, the government's main party, is opposed to the plan. So is its former far-right ally, the League, which is now part of the opposition.
The League is led by the ex-Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, who put in place anti-migrant legislation during his time in office. The UN special rapporteur said this greatly aided the caporalato system.
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