Four migrant workers reportedly burned alive in their car in attack in Italy

Migrants picking tomatoes near Foggia, southern Italy. A leading bishop has said the country’s exploitation of workers from abroad ‘shakes faith in humanity’. Photograph: Dino Fracchia/Alamy View image in fullscreen Migrants picking tomatoes near Foggia, southern Italy. A leading bishop has said the country’s exploitation of workers from abroad ‘shakes faith in humanity’. Photograph: Dino Fracchia/Alamy Four migrant workers reportedly burned alive in their car in attack in Italy Petrol station attack in Calabria throws spotlight on widespread exploitation of foreign farm labourers The exploitation of farm workers in Italy has come under the spotlight again after four men – three Afghans and one from Pakistan – were allegedly burned alive in a car at a petrol station in Calabria. The attack was captured by a surveillance camera at the garage in Amendolara, close to Cosenza. Two Pakistani nationals have been arrested on charges of aggravated murder, according to public prosecutor Alessandro D’Alessio. The video footage, which was broadcast by the state TV network, Rai, and other Italian media, appears to show the suspects pouring liquid into the back of the vehicle while it is parked next to a petrol pump. They set it ablaze and block its doors to try to ensure the victims cannot get out. A fourth Afghan man, who suffered burns to his arms, managed to escape through the boot. In an interview with the regional news service TGR Calabria, the survivor, a strawberry picker who shared a flat with the four victims, said the killers were part of a “huge Pakistani mafia”, adding: “It’s a miracle that I’m alive.” He said the victims were threatened with guns and knives and had been forced to work without pay and received only food and board. Facilitated by flaws in immigration and labour law, the exploitation of farm workers has become rampant under a criminal system known as caporalato – a lucrative, tightly run network of gangmasters who illegally recruit poorly paid labourers. Francesco Savino, vice-president of the Italian bishops’ conference, said news of the murders “shakes the faith in humanity” and called for a “revolt of conscience” against exploitation, the gangmaster system and indifference. “I say it forcefully,” he added. “Enough with the dirty silence of convenience. Enough with the grey area that sees, knows and lets things happen. Enough with the wicked habit of considering it normal for men from far away to harvest, work, live, sleep, travel, and die like bodies without a history.” View image in fullscreen Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, has pledged to clamp down on the gangmaster system. Photograph: Riccardo De Luca/AGF/Shutterstock CGIL, Italy’s biggest trade union, described the murders as an “unspeakable horror” and urged politicians to “combat the abominations of daily life experienced by workers, often migrants, in our countryside”. The video of the scene was shared on social media by Roberto Occhiuto, president of the Calabri