Uproar in Italy as Indian farm worker left to die with severed arm

A trade unionist has demanded a crackdown on “barbaric exploitation” in the wake of an Indian agricultural worker’s death, claiming that his employer abandoned him on a road after an accident that left him with a severed arm.

On Monday, Satnam Singh, 31, sustained injuries while performing maintenance on farm equipment in Latina, a rural region near Rome that is home to a sizable population of Indian laborers who are immigrants.

Singh, who emigrated to Italy three years ago with his spouse, is said to have had his arm amputated on the street outside his Borgo Santa Maria residence.

After his wife alerted the police, they said, an air ambulance was dispatched to take him to the San Camillo Forlalini hospital in Rome, where he passed away on Wednesday due to his wounds.

His Italian company is being investigated for neglecting to provide assistance, violating industrial safety rules, and manslaughter.

Initial investigations revealed that Singh was operating a plastic roller wrapping machine that was connected to a tractor at the time of the accident.

Italy’s labour minister, Marina Calderone, condemned the “true act of barbarity” and hoped that those responsible would be punished. “The Indian agricultural worker who suffered a serious accident in the countryside of Latina and was abandoned in very serious conditions … has died,” she told parliament.

Agriculture minister Francesco Lollobrigida said on Thursday that Giorgia Meloni’s government was “on the frontline … to fight against all forms of labour exploitation”. He added: “This is a tragedy which mustn’t leave us indifferent and on which full light must be shed.”

The centre-left Democratic party (PD) condemned the man’s treatment as a “defeat for civilisation”, while urging the government to take action to rid Italy of the so-called “agro-mafias” that run migrant labouring rackets.