Thursday, 21 December 2006

Putting Mrs K out of her misery!

Slightly more positive I guess, but not much...

The story "The dark side of the Christmas orange harvest" described the conditions that about 20,000 African migrants, harvesting clementines for Christmas in Southern Italy have found themselves in.

The majority are working illegally, for very low wages, and living in very poor conditions - described in the article as "not even meeting the minimum standards set by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for refugees in camps in Africa".

So severe is the situation in Southern Italy that Medecins Sans Frontieres - an international charity which works mainly in Africa and Asia - has sent a team in.

The picture below shows Samia, from Ghana, in the abandoned factory that is his home - along with about 80 other migrants. Click on the picture to link to the full story.


There is also a Special Report, focusing on the sad stories of individual workers, and a series of images.


But...

Why are these men moving to Italy? Why do they put up with such poor conditions? Does Italy need these migrant workers? If so, should they be treating them better than this? (And even if not, should they be treated like this?!).

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