The death of Satnam Singh, a
31-year-old Indian farm labourer left to bleed out after a
strawberry wrapping machine severed his arm at Latina Monday,
was "the fault of a criminal", the employer who dumped him at
his hut at the town south of Rome with the amputated limb
resting on a picking box, Farm Minister Francesco Lollobrigida
said Friday.
But Singh's death "through the fault of a criminal" must not
lead to criminalising all agricultural enterprises amid calls to
stamp out gangmastering, said Lollobrigida, Premier Giorg ia
Meloni's brother in law and a bigwig in her rightwing Brothers
of Italy (FdI) party.
Speaking at a press conference with Labour Minister Marina
Calderone after talks on Singh's death and gangmastering with
unions and employers, Lollobrigida said: "In these situations
it can happen that there is a criminalisation of one of the
links in the chain.
"It can happen, therefore, that when faced with serious episodes
like the one at Latina, all the agricultural enterprises are
criminalised.
"These deaths aren't the fault of agricultural entrepreneurs.
"They are the fault of criminals".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
