San Nicola Varco is a place in Eboli, near Salerno, where there is a farmers market built in the 80s and never came into operation. The structure had become, for many years, the lodging of hundreds of North African immigrants, mainly Moroccans, day laborers in local fields. Most of them had arrived in Italy regularly, with a contract of employment. But once here, the contract turned out to be a scam.
Illegal hiring pure and simple. Local farms called workers with the promise of regular employment. Many of them paid thousands of euros, money ended up in the pockets of Italians and Moroccans intermediaries. Without a regular contract, thanks to the Bossi-Fini law, they instantly became illegal immigrants. But in fact no local farm had really wanted to hire them, because the Italian agriculture pays its workers day by day and has no interest in establishing stable employment relationships. The law does not oblige them to do so, the law does not oblige employers who have secured a contract for an immigrant to fulfill their commitment. Others had arrived irregularly, and ended up in the same impossible conditions of life.
San Nicola Varco has been transformed into a ghetto of laborers, no water, no light, no heat, with barracks converted from the agricultural market structures, built from plastic sheets and panels of absestos. From 100 to 1000 people, mostly young men aged 18 to 30, lived in these conditions, depending on the season and the available jobs, wake up at dawn and worked at least 10 hours in the fields or in greenhouses for 25 euros, of which 3 go to the provider of the day job. The CGIL workers union of Salerno has for years sought to denounce this situation and improve the living conditions of immigrants, managed to organize Italian lessons, helped some of them to have health care. But local institutions or the state did nothing and besides, why should they do. Everyone knows that this is the situation of tens of thousands of immigrants who work as laborers in agriculture throughout Italy, and nobody cares.
Today the raid started: police came to San Nicola Varco and cleared the former agricultural market. The reason why Italy has suddenly realized the existence of immigrants in the area is because shortly should begin the project of a large shopping mall, where there are already investigations about mafia infiltrations. Police found about 80 regular immigrants, which will have to leave their makeshift shelters, and 22 illegal immigrants who are likely to be interned in CIE awaiting deportation to their country of origin. The majority fled during the night before the raid, and probably will continue to work in the fields in conditions of semi-slavery, now without even a roof over their head.
Given the degraded conditions of life they had to bear perhaps the 22 who have not fled are hoping to be repatriated. Came from Africa to work, they found themselves living in third world here in Italy, no rights, no money, exploited by employers, often victims of bullying and racist attacks. But the evacuation of St. Nicholas Varco is not a solution nor a result, is the final disgrace of a disgraceful Italian situation, in a hypocritical country that is well happy to get immigrants to deceive and exploit them without restraint, and then, depending on the political or economic expediency, imprisons them and expels them even if they have not committed any crime, while the Italians have made several against them.
Meanwhile, the situation will continue exactly as before for immigrants in the area, since a large part of Italian agriculture would not be competitive if it had to decently pay workers. Some of the immigrants of San Nicola Varco, after living for months or years in the camp of former agricultural market will be brought to the camps of the CIE, where they can stay up to six months if the italian state does not deign to quickly organize their return home or the country of origin does not cooperate.
This is Italy for many immigrants, first of all slaves, sometimes prisoners, sometimes deported, and yet always innocents.
Francesco Defferrari
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