Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Gavin Grey: Europe Correspondent on the Indian farmer freed from "slave-like" conditions in Northern Italy

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Gavin Grey: Europe Correspondent on the Indian farmer freed from "slave-like" conditions in Northern Italy · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But we can join geven now for the latest. Kevin,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: good morning. What exactly are they talking about slave like conditions?
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Well, because they were working ten to twelve hours a day,
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  Speaker 2: seven days a week. They were housed in a really
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: rundown apartment said to be extremely unhygienic, and were paid
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: at roughly six New Zealand dollars per hour. And the
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  Speaker 2: problem for many of these Indian farm laborers is that
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: when they arrived in Italy, having been promised work visas,
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  Speaker 2: their passports were taken off them. They were not given
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  Speaker 2: any documentation and many arrived in debt and yes, you
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  Speaker 2: guessed it, they weren't ever earning enough to pay off
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  Speaker 2: the debt and the interest. And that is why two men,
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  Speaker 2: also Indian nationals, have been arrested. When they were arrested Ryan,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: they had over three quarters of a million Ossie dollars
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  Speaker 2: in cash on them. It's big, big money, and these
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I'm afraid these gangs operate in. These slave conditions are
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: pretty common both Italian and migrants in Italy, and I'm
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: afraid they're often representing many thousands of people in fields, vineyards,
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  Speaker 2: greenhouses across the country. Indeed, just last month an Indian
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  Speaker 2: fruit picker died after his arm was seven in a
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  Speaker 2: workplace accident. Instead of taking him to the hospital, he
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: was just left by the side of the road where
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  Speaker 2: he died. So as you can imagine, some pretty awful
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  Speaker 2: scenes about how they're treated and the group these thirty
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  Speaker 2: three workers are now being looked after by social services
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  Speaker 2: and those with migrants support.
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  Speaker 1: God, it's terrible. Let's go to Dublin. What's happening with
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  Speaker 1: this protest?
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm afraid back to the situation of asylum seekers
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  Speaker 2: and migration here because as you know, Ireland prides itself
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  Speaker 2: on an open door, welcome to migrants. Well it's suddenly
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  Speaker 2: been inundated with welcome, open door for migrants, I think
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  Speaker 2: partially possibly because the UK seems to be getting tougher
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: on it, at least it was under the previous government.
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  Speaker 2: And what happened is there was a protest. There's quite
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  Speaker 2: a violent protest outside of site in North Dublin that
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  Speaker 2: has been set aside for housing some of the asylum seekers.
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  Speaker 2: Protesters gathered set palettes on fire, some construction machinery on
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  Speaker 2: fire as well, and also attacked police with rocks. Police
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: fired back, trying to quell them, but several officers were injured,
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  Speaker 2: with more than two hundred guardians it known or police
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  Speaker 2: officers deployed to the incidents. Three of the police cars
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  Speaker 2: were damaged and one of which was set on fire. Now,
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  Speaker 2: all of this is because some people are saying that
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  Speaker 2: there are Irish nationals who can't get housing, they can't
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  Speaker 2: afford housing, they are homeless, and yet they claim new
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  Speaker 2: asylum seekers a given priority on the housing list. The
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  Speaker 2: government says that's not the case, but we have to
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  Speaker 2: welcome migrants and we indeed have to welcome them up
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  Speaker 2: to certain standards. So a great deal of tension and
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  Speaker 2: not the first time there's been violence on the streets
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  Speaker 2: of Dublin when trying to sort these situations out, too.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: True, Gavin, thank you so much for that. That's our
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: UK and Europe correspondent Devin Gray. It is for more
• 3:09
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• 3:13
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• 3:15
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