Employers reportedly shot at migrant farm workers who demanded six months’ back pay
Police say at least 20 migrant farm workers in the Peloponnese were injured when employers fired at them.
An employer reportedly opened fire against a large group of about 200 Bangladeshi immigrant farm workers in Nea Manolada, on the outskirts of Ileia in the Peloponnese, on Thursday. The immigrant workers had reportedly gathered to demand six-months’ worth of unpaid wages.
Police reported that one of at least three farmers opened fire, injuring at least 20 migrant workers. One farmer armed with a hunting rifle was reportedly arrested.
Several thousand migrant workers (many of them reportedly undocumented) are empoyed as strawberry pickers in the area.
This is not the first time that immigrants in Nea Manolada have protested against harsh working conditions.
In 2008, immigrant farm workers staged a two-day strike (delaying the shipments of strawberries by at least a few days) to protest against harsh working conditions. Their strike exposed slave wage exploitation, shocking living conditions and prejudice.
The government at the time responded to the strike by ordering labour inspectors to crack the whip on farmers exploiting migrant workers in Nea Manolada.
Despite the country’s soaring rate of unemployment, agriculture is heavily reliant on immigrant labour.
In 2009, two farmers in Manolada, alleged to have tied two Bangladeshi immigrants to a motorcycle and reportedly dragged them through a central square.
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