He was cutting hay when a machine cut off his arm. (Figurative)
Rome:
An Indian farmer working in Italy died on Wednesday after being abandoned on the road following an accident that severed his arm, a minister said, condemning a “barbaric act”.
Satnam Singh was injured Monday while working on a farm in Latina, a rural area south of Rome that is home to tens of thousands of Indian migrant workers.
“The Indian agricultural worker who suffered a serious accident in the Latina field and was abandoned in very serious conditions… has died,” Labor Minister Marina Calderone told Parliament.
“It was a truly barbaric act,” he said, adding that authorities were investigating and expressing hope that those responsible would be punished.
Singh, who was 30 or 31 years old and working without legal documents, was cutting hay when a machine cut off his arm, according to the Flai CGIL union.
“Instead of getting help from his employers, they dumped him like a sack of garbage near his house,” he said, comparing the situation to a “horror movie.”
Police said Singh’s wife and friends had called them and an air ambulance was sent.
“He was flown to a hospital in Rome, but he died (today) around noon,” a Latina police spokesman told AFP.
The center-left Democratic Party condemned the man’s treatment, in an area known for the exploitation of workers, as a “defeat of civilization.”
“The fight against gangsters and for decent and humane living and working conditions must continue to be our priority,” he said in X.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated channel.)