A/HRC/42/44/Add.1 sectors. Nevertheless, the majority of those working irregularly in the agricultural sector are not victims of trafficking but of labour exploitation. Many of them were smuggled to Italy by sea, others entered Italy as regular migrants. Workers from European Union countries are often recruited in their country of origin on a seasonal basis. 49. According to estimates, close to half (42 per cent) of irregular farm workers are women.19 In some cases, migrant women who are victims of sexual exploitation are also subject to labour exploitation, working under similar conditions as men for a daily wage of between 15 and 25 euros. Some women live in precarious conditions on farms, with or without their families, which isolates them from the outside world, increasing their dependency on the employers and their vulnerability to sexual exploitation. Women with family responsibilities are particularly vulnerable in this regard, as they may accept exploitative or slavery-like conditions in order to make a living for their children. 50. Romanian and Bulgarian women are particularly affected by both forms of exploitation but in places such as Latina, the caporali and employers also force some women workers from India to provide sexual services. Women workers and particularly irregular migrants are forced to comply with these demands in order to keep their jobs and avoid being reported to the judicial authorities. Hazardous work, coercion and underpayment 51. According to the testimonies received, victims of labour exploitation resulting in slavery are subjected to long working hours of sometimes up to 17 hours a day and some have neither rest days nor paid leave days. They undertake physically arduous and often hazardous work and may be exposed to pesticides without the necessary compliance with occupational health and safety requirements. In some instances, injured workers have been left abandoned near hospitals for emergency treatment by the gangmaster in charge, with instructions not to disclose details of the farm where the accident occurred. 52. Wages are often well below the amounts set under regional or provincial collective work agreements and may be as little as 3 euros per hour. In the places visited by the Special Rappporteur, the salary was generally between 20 and 30 euros a day for 10–12 hours of work. Workers are often paid by piece rather than by the hour, which increases the pressure on them. In Calabria, workers are paid as little as 50 cents for a box of oranges and 1 euro for a box of tangerines. Salaries are on average 40 per cent lower than the minimum wage guaranteed in national collective labour agreements, as a certain percentage of the salary is withheld by the employer and by the caporale. In the Gioia Tauro plain of Calabria, for example, workers receive on average 25 euros a day, despite the gross salary being 42 euros a day, based on provincial norms. In Apulia, the employer pays the caporale 5 euros for each container of tomatoes (300 kg). For each container, the caporale holds back between 50 cents and 1.5 euros, leaving the workers with between 3.5 and 4.5 euros. 53. In Latina, about 30,000 Sikh workers from India are subjected to extreme forms of coercion, including being forced to take performance-enhancing drugs, which is prohibited by their religion but which enables them to work 10–14 hours a day in the fields. 54. Other forms of coercion include physical and sexual violence or threats of violence, the withholding of wages and documents, and threats by traffickers to workers’ families in their countries of origin if they refuse to continue doing the exploitative work. For example, a 20-year-old worker from India had not been paid for three months and was severely beaten when he asked for his pay. Dependency on the caporali 55. For the reasons mentioned, middlemen exercise a great deal of power and control over the workers they recruit. In addition to transportation, they also provide food, water and housing, for which they commonly retain a high fee: transport from the accommodation to the field costs around 5 euros per day, a sandwich may cost 3 euros and a bottle of water 19 See Osservatorio Placido Rizzotto/FLAI CGIL, Agromafie e Caporalato. Quarto Rapporto (Rome, Bibliotheka Edizioni, 2018). 9