Indian labourer dies after employer abandoned him with severed arm
ROME -- Satnam Singh, a 31 year old labourer, died at the San Camillo di Roma hospital on Wednesday morning after being denied medical attention by his employer after his arm was severed by machinery in Latina in Lazio, the Carabinieri have said.
The labourer, who had been working in the fields, lost his arm after being caught in a plastic wrapping machine, and he suffered injuries to his legs which were also crushed by the machinery. In an attempt to hide the incident, the 31-year-old labourer had been denied medical attention and was instead left in front of his house where he was aided by local residents and transported to the hospital.
The Public Prosecutor's Office is set to open an inquest into Singh's death and the owner of the farm where the labourer worked will be investigated for manslaughter and failure to assist a person in danger.
Singh and his wife arrived in Italy several years ago, taking a job in the fields of Latina in Lazio, where there is a large community of labourers from Asian countries.
Italian media has reported a notable silence from local politicians in the Lazio area, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has previously commented on workplace accidents.
The secretary for labour for the Democratic Party, Maria Cecilia Guerra, denounced the reaction to the incident. “The tragic event of the Indian labourer with a severed arm and a body flattened by machinery, being loaded onto a minibus and abandoned without aid in front of his house, in order for the employer to avoid responsibility, with the elevated risk of leaving him for dead, is not the result of an isolated behaviour of rare and dramatic inhumanity.”
“It is the coherent result of an agri-mafia system that operates in the Latina province, with reports by an abundance of data of research carried out by national and international organisations, as well as police investigations into the connivance, if not corruption, of prominent figures in the professional sphere and local and national politics.”
“A system in which the extreme exploitation and violence against labourers, often those of foreign origin, amount to a modern version of ancient practises of slavery and segregation. It is this system that must be dismantled if we really want to avoid repeating these events which are so intolerable in the eyes of anyone who calls themselves human,” Guerra continued.
On Tuesday morning, the Mayor of Latina and a member of the Brothers of Italy party responded to the incident. “I am profoundly shocked and distressed to learn of the event that happened to a young worker from an agriculture company in Borgo Santa Maria who, according to several media reports, after suffering a serious work-related injury which caused the loss of his arm, he was allegedly left in front of his home instead of receiving immediate medical attention.”
“This event represents a violation of fundamental human rights, human dignity and inherent regulations around worker safety,” the mayor added.
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