Two men have been arrested in connection with the deaths of 16 migrant workers on a farm in southern Italy, a tragedy that has reignited calls from British agricultural unions for urgent reforms to protect vulnerable labourers. The arrests, announced by Italian police on Tuesday, follow a fire that swept through a makeshift dormitory in the town of Foggia, killing workers from Africa and Eastern Europe. As the investigation unfolds, farmers’ leaders in the UK have warned that the same exploitative practices that led to the disaster are rife within Britain’s own agricultural sector.
“This is a wake-up call,” said Maria Thompson, a spokesperson for the National Farmers’ Union’s ethical labour division. “Migrant workers are the backbone of our food system, yet they are too often housed in substandard conditions, paid below the minimum wage, and denied basic rights. We cannot afford to look away.” The NFU has pressed the government to introduce mandatory licensing for gangmasters and farm accommodation, arguing that voluntary schemes have failed to stamp out abuse.
The tragedy in Italy has cast a harsh light on the precarious existence of migrant labourers in Europe. According to the International Labour Organization, agriculture is one of the most dangerous sectors for migrant workers, with deaths from workplace accidents, heatstroke and substandard housing occurring regularly. In the UK, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) has reported a 40% increase in calls to its modern slavery helpline since 2020, with cases ranging from withheld wages to outright trafficking.
For many British farmers, the issue is personal. John Hartley, a dairy farmer in Shropshire, employs a dozen migrant workers from Romania and the Philippines. “Without them, I’d be out of business,” he told me. “But I make sure they have proper housing, fair pay and access to healthcare. The problem is that there are rogue operators who undercut everyone else by treating workers like disposable tools. It hurts the workers, and it hurts honest farmers like me.”
The UK government has responded by pledging to “strengthen enforcement” against exploitative employers, but critics argue that the current system is toothless. The GLAA, which oversees labour practices in agriculture, has just 100 investigators to police an industry employing over 400,000 seasonal workers each year. Meanwhile, the post-Brexit shortage of EU workers has driven many farms to rely on labour from even more vulnerable groups, including asylum seekers and those on temporary visas.
“The government talks tough, but the reality is that many of these workers are terrified to speak up for fear of losing their jobs or being deported,” said Priya Sharma, a lawyer with the charity Focus on Labour Exploitation. “We need a system that puts worker welfare ahead of profits. That means proper inspections, union access to farms and a clear path to permanent residency for those who have been exploited.”
As the sun set over Foggia, relatives of the victims gathered for a vigil, clutching photographs and praying for justice. In Britain, the echoes of their grief could be heard in the fields and packing sheds where thousands toil in the shadows. If the tragedy is to have any lasting impact, unions and campaigners argue, it must spur action not just in Italy but across the continent.
“We are all connected,” Thompson said. “The same supply chains that bring cheap fruit to our supermarkets also bring exploitation. It is time for the industry to clean up its act, and for the government to back that up with real, enforceable laws. Otherwise, we will continue to see tragedies like this again and again.”
