ELISA ODDONE
Photojournalist
“I was with Sacko the day of his murder. I saw everything, I had to leave the camp amid fears of retaliation. It is not safe for me here any more.”
Thousands of Africans pick fruit and vegetables for a pittance as supermarkets profit, and face violent abuse.
Rosarno, Foggia and Saluzzo, Italy
Drame Madiheri is a Malian crop-picker in Italy's southern Calabria region. Filling one crate with oranges earns him a euro ($1.17) during harvest season, which runs from November until March.
If he's lucky, a nine-hour workday in the biting winter of the vast Gioia Tauro Plain will bring in 25 euros.
He reached the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa on a migrant boat four years ago. "The dinghy on the Libyan coast was my only opportunity for survival," he says. "My boss in Libya tried to kill me after I lost one of the sheep I was guarding. I had to escape."
Once in Italy, he ended up in Rosarno, an infamous mafia stronghold, but also an agricultural hotspot for tangerines, oranges, olives and kiwis. Around 2,500 African crop-pickers work in the area.
