Sikh Exploitation In Italy

[singh598]

 

[Big_Tera]

Why are these Sikhs going to italy in the first place? Looks like many of these pendus go looking for a quick buck. 

They shouldn't be ao silly trying to escape Punjab. If these peiple go abroad without any qualifications they are only going to end up in poorly paid and bad jobs that no one wants. 

Seems like they know what they are going for and now want the sympathy card from everyone. 

 

[singh598]

Ribbish....farming in India is a negative industry....they often make lossess

[RajKaregaKhalsa1]

15 hours ago, Big_Tera said:

They shouldn't be ao silly trying to escape Punjab. If these peiple go abroad without any qualifications they are only going to end up in poorly paid and bad jobs that no one wants. 

It's not really their fault. The Indian government have restricted the farmers of Punjab to sell there crops at a fixed price even if the prices of the crop triples etc. They also force them to buy genetically enhanced crops etc. and if they don't they won't be able to make and anything and by buying this genetically modified seed they get into debt so they are in a very bad cycle of exploitation in Punjab.

And as for the qualifcations, it is said that in Punjab teachers don't even attend schools so you can't even get qualificatons sometimes.

So they have to move or just suffer sometimes. It is quite sad and we should do more to help rather than let them be exploited

[Premi5]

https://euobserver.com/migration/152333

The exploited Sikh labourers babysitting Italy's buffalos

• Buffalos grazing on the Pontine plain, south of Rome - their cheese retails at €15-per-kilo, but the workers caring for them are lucky to make €400 a month (Photo: Silvia Marchetti)

By SILVIA MARCHETTI

ROME, 5. JUL, 07:14

If you happen to visit the Pontine plain south of Rome, you'll likely see long-bearded Sikh rural migrant workers with red turbans tending buffalos and picking melons, aubergines and kiwis.

Roughly 30,000 Indian and Pakistani immigrants live in the province of Latina, the second-largest Sikh cluster in Italy.

• Indian rural migrant workers on the Pontine plain. In each stable, there are at least two Sikh workers. Regular workers get paid €9 gross per hour - but over 70 percent don't have a job contract and are illegal migrants, getting paid €2-€3 per hour (Photo: Marco Omizzolo)

Singh is a popular surname in the area - half work in the fertile fields and in local dairy farms to make mozzarella di bufala - premium mozzarella cheese with buffalo milk. It's a very niche product, tastier than ordinary cow's milk mozzarella, and more expensive.

Mozzarella di bufala is a top Made-in-Italy food excellence which boasts Europe's prestigious PDO status. The cost in Italy is roughly €15-per-kilo. The mozzarella made in the Pontine plain, a former marshland, is part of a consortium of mozzarella-makers stretching all the way to the region of Campania.

"They migrant workers are exploited (by landlords and dairy businessmen) like slaves. They work up to 14 hours per day, every single day non-stop without any leave time, for barely €400 per month. When they get harmed doing the job their masters hide these incidents, and often even beat them up. In the last four years, 14 Sikhs have committed suicide", says Marco Omizzolo, sociology professor at Rome's La Sapienza university and associate at the Eurispes think tank.

Omizzolo has repeatedly denounced the inhumane working conditions of Sikh farmworkers, giving them legal support and shelter through local humanitarian projects and migrant support centres.

Lawsuits

"Dozens of lawsuits against labour-abusers are still pending. The 'masters' and the caporali (the middle-men who recruit day labourers) exploit these migrants to produce top Italian goods which are exported and well known in the whole world, made by people who are trapped into slavery and often victims of violence", says Omizzolo.

Sikhs look after the grazing buffalos, feed, milk and wash the animals, and clean the stables. They also have a central role in the mozzarella business, as many have been taught how to process the buffalo milk into the delicious cheese.

Sikhs are renowned to have skills in looking after buffalos due to their traditional familiarity with cattle back home, says Omizzolo.

They have a farming and breeding background which is useful to landowners. Even if they don't worship cows like Hindus, they don't eat meat and nourish a particular respect for all life forms, he explains, especially buffalos on which they have learnt to depend for survival in India.

At dawn, Sikh migrants bike to work along dusty narrow country roads and canals. They're also employed behind the counter. Streets in the area are lined with mozzarella and fresh produce stands selling to the public.

In each stable there are at least two Sikh workers. Regular workers get paid €9 gross per hour - but over 70 percent don't have a job contract and are illegal migrants, getting paid between €2 and €3 per hour.

16-hour days

Life in the dairy farms is tough. Shifts start at 4.30am and run till 9pm, with at least three buffalo-milking sessions a day.

"In the dairy factory where I worked we made mozzarella and other cheeses. I had to do everything: milk the buffalos and cows, wash and feed the cattle and their babies. I even gave them medicines. I had a total of 67 animals to tend to each single day", says Gill Singh, 35, from India.

"I got paid just €300 per month and lived in a shack attached to the stable. That special buffalo milk has made my master very rich, he goes around in expensive cars while I lived like a slave for three whole years. It was hell, too much work. I was no longer a free man. I often thought of killing myself".

Other Sikh labourers have been forced to sleep in caravans without electricity, running water and gas. They're undernourished and often live under threat by their masters. They're forced to work even in the hottest hours of the day, without lunch break, and if they refuse they're immediately replaced by other labourers.

Babir Singh says he was often beaten up by a dairy farm owner, and the most he got paid to work 14 hours straight each day for a month was €150.

"To eat I often went searching for food in the leftovers he threw to the pigs, hens and in the rubbish. Now, thanks to Omizzolo and the police, I'm a free man but I won't give up my court battle until justice against that landlord is made".

Gill and Babir were lucky enough to get away from their hellish job and find more stable and promising occupations in the dairy sector. But many Sikh migrants fail to escape.

Mozzarella nightmares

Madanjeet Singh, 46 years-old, works at a dairy farm that produces milk, yogurt, mozzarella and other cheeses. He gets paid €350 per month.

"I work each single day, even at Christmas and Easter. For three whole years I was stuck here and couldn't go back to India to visit my family. That mozzarella became my nightmares, I hated it so much because it was the symbol of my slavery".

Madanjeet works with other two migrants in the same poor conditions, one from Bangladesh and the other from India.

"Those mozzarella are made with our blood and sweat. We work without any sort of rights for an Italian master and for 'Made-in-Italy' products".

Omizzolo says - compared to a few years ago - the overall situation has perhaps improved a little, with trade unions and police stepping in to help labourers and more formal job contracts.

Overall, however, local authorities and courts remain slow in taking action against the abuses.

[dallysingh101]

Quote

 In the last four years, 14 Sikhs have committed suicide", says Marco Omizzolo, sociology professor at Rome's La Sapienza university and associate at the Eurispes think tank.

Waheguru

[MisterrSingh]

They know what they're getting themselves into. They aren't children. In most cases, this period of their life becomes a "war story" of sorts they look back on and chuckle about amongst themselves in private.

Empathy should be reserved for those with similar values. Most of these people are sociopaths who wouldn't urinate on any of us if we were on fire. I had the misfortune of working with these exact brand of Sikhs for 18 months a few years back when I was getting back on my feet, and I promise you they possess ZERO of the sentimentality that we pampered, gullible, and out-of-touch Westerners show when confronted with these stories.

Also, after working with these folks and seeing them up-close and personally, I finally worked out why foreign powers were able to conquer and subjugate our lands and people for centuries. It's because of these people. It's not an exaggeration to say there is something traitorous in our makeup as a group. I remember thinking what I was seeing on the factory floor was most likely very close to what invading armies and personnel would be confronted with when entering our lands; cowardly, double-crossing devils all-too eager to sell out their own people for personal advancement and perks. Microcosm > Macrocosm.

[ChardikalaUK]

If they are legal they should have just come to the UK after getting Italian citizenship. Having said that the days of being an unskilled worker and still being able to buy your own house are over now.

I have visited Punjab the youth just can't be bothered to study. The ones that do eventually find a good job.

[Ranjeet01]

5 hours ago, MisterrSingh said:

They know what they're getting themselves into. They aren't children. In most cases, this period of their life becomes a "war story" of sorts they look back on and chuckle about amongst themselves in private.

Empathy should be reserved for those with similar values. Most of these people are sociopaths who wouldn't urinate on any of us if we were on fire. I had the misfortune of working with these exact brand of Sikhs for 18 months a few years back when I was getting back on my feet, and I promise you they possess ZERO of the sentimentality that we pampered, gullible, and out-of-touch Westerners show when confronted with these stories.

Also, after working with these folks and seeing them up-close and personally, I finally worked out why foreign powers were able to conquer and subjugate our lands and people for centuries. It's because of these people. It's not an exaggeration to say there is something traitorous in our makeup as a group. I remember thinking what I was seeing on the factory floor was most likely very close to what invading armies and personnel would be confronted with when entering our lands; cowardly, double-crossing devils all-too eager to sell out their own people for personal advancement and perks. Microcosm > Macrocosm.

100 per cent agreement here.

People (particularly us outsiders) fail to see how well connected these guys are with their mobile phones

They have friends and relatives all over the world and know every country's loop-holes as they share this information amongst themselves.

Even  bibian in Punjab who has never ventured outside knows exactly what type of visa is needed for each country and what kind of work they have.

They know exactly what they are doing.

[MisterrSingh]

7 minutes ago, Ranjeet01 said:

Even  bibian in Punjab who has never ventured outside knows exactly what type of visa is needed for each country and what kind of work they have.

These women are more savvy and street-smart than a born-and-raised Western, middle-class Sikh male. Fact.

They all (the men) have deception, wiles and charm in their arsenal but they have no response to violence and intimidation. That's one guaranteed way to get them in line. They also have that pathological Indian need to defer to whiteness, which is rather amusing and simultaneously pathetic to observe.