A/HRC/43/44/Add.6 abuse and exploitation were unveiled 21 . In Apulia and Sicily, the Special Rapporteur confronted the reality of migrant women who face poor quality of life influenced by exclusion and a widespread culture of illegality. The Rapporteur was informed that, as a follow up to the 2017 arrests, the police forces had been more active in intervening to cease similar situations of abuse. Comments: We strongly deny the assertion that “From North to South, hundreds of thousands of workers farm the land or take care of livestock without the adequate legal and social protection”. This is a serious generalization and remains unsubstantiated. Furthermore, affirming that gangmastering (“caporalato”) is “widely diffused and fostered” is totally inappropriate, unless specific criminal accounts or other official references are included. On the opposite, the report should reflect enhanced efforts by the Italian competent authorities in terms of prevention and enforcement action against cases of gangmastering. Recent official figures concerning the number of arrested persons and seized assets point to an increasing efficiency also thanks to Law 199/2016. Progress in this area is widely recognized by international observers. It should be noted that the competent Ministries (labor, home affairs and agriculture) constantly coordinate their activities at political and operational levels. The same Ministries recently adopted a three-years action plan to prevent and combat reported cases; 10 priority actions have been decided to prevent and combat related crimes; furthermore 85 million euro have been allocated to implement such an action plan. Therefore, we request further consideration of this important matter. 76. From North to South, hundreds of thousands of workers farm the land or take care of livestock without the adequate legal and social protections, salary and under the constant threat of losing their job, being repatriated or being the object of physical, sexual and moral violence.22 It is in this environment that the practice of “caporalato”23 or gangmastering has found fertile grounds to provide illegal intermediation between workers and farmers based on the exploitation of the condition of vulnerability of migrant workers. Caporalato appears to be widely diffused and fostered by the lack of appropriate systems of labour market. 24 77. With the law 199/2016, Italy has extended the scope of the existing provision against caporalato. The main innovation is that the new article 601bis criminalizes both the intermediary (which was already object of a criminal provision) and anyone (often called ‘master’ by the workers) who exploits workers and takes advantage of their state of need – whether or not there has been illicit intermediation. 78. The law represents a step forward in fighting the practice, however it is insufficient to guarantee the human rights of all farmworkers, in particular of the 400,000 undocumented migrants who work in the agricultural system and are kept in a condition of invisibility and fear because of the current system of migration law and the ‘law and order’ attitude towards migrant workers. 79. The end of the humanitarian permits sanctioned by the 2018 Salvini Decree, 25 the hardship of obtaining a permit without a residence and a job, the fear of not obtaining the renewal and of self-incrimination, the absence of any alternative, poor legal awareness, the 21 22 23 24 25 The Guardian, March 2017 - Raped, beaten, exploited: the 21st-century slavery propping up Sicilian farming. Osservatorio Placido Rizzotto & FLAI CGIL (2018) IV Rapporto Agromafie e Caporalato (Milan, Hoepli Editore); OXFAM AND TERRA! ONLUS (2018) Human Suffering in Italy’s Agricultural Value Chain (Rome: Oxfam and Terra! Onlus); #FilieraSporca (2016) Spolpati: La crisi dell’industria del Pomodoro tra sfruttamento e insostenibilità. Third campaign report. IPS News, Agromafia Exploits Hundreds of Thousands of Agricultural Workers in Italy, July 2018. Available at: http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/07/agromafia-exploits-hundreds-thousands-agriculturalworkers-italy/. Leogrande A. (2018) Uomini e caporali (Milan: Universale Economica Feltrinelli); Omizzolo M. (2019) Sotto Padrone, Milano, Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli; Palmisano L. (2017) Mafia Caporale, Roma, Fandango Libri. Decree N° 113/2018, converted into law on 1 December 2018, n. 132. 13