In Italy, A Migrants’ Advocate Fights For The ‘Invisibles’

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Aboubakar Soumahoro speaks at a protest in Rome last month. «If the workers lack dignity and rights, the food they provide is virtually rotten,» he says in a new short documentary, The Invisibles.

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Patrizia Cortellessa/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

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In an interview with NPR, Soumahoro spoke of the injustice underlying Italy’s food industry, where tens of thousands of undocumented migrants work.

«The reality is that laborers work at the limit of human dignity, what can be described as new forms of slavery. And they lack decent wages,» Soumahoro says. «They earn only 3 1/2 euros [$4] an hour — half what they should be paid.»

Soumahoro’s fight for migrant workers’ rights is the subject of a new short documentary called The Invisibles. Italian filmmakers Carola Mamberto and Diana Ferrero shot the footage during the height of the pandemic, in farm fields where migrant labor kept Italy’s food supply chain moving smoothly.

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In one scene, Soumahoro is among a group of migrant farmhands in a field near the southeastern town of Foggia. He points to the inhumane conditions of their shantytowns — makeshift hovels, no running water.

«We are among the invisible field workers,» Soumahoro says, «the wretched of the earth, abandoned in social misery.»

The documentary follows Soumahoro as he drives a van across Italy’s agricultural heartland, delivering donations of food and protective gear to migrant agricultural workers. But these essential workers cannot protect their health.

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A migrant pauses as he picks potatoes in Siracusa, Sicily, Italy, in 2015.

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Aboubakar Soumahoro chained himself to a bench during a protest in Rome on June 16. He announced the start of hunger strike to demand the regularization of migrant workers.

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Aboubakar Soumahoro chained himself to a bench during a protest in Rome on June 16. He announced the start of hunger strike to demand the regularization of migrant workers.

Alessandra Tarantino/AP

Soumahoro is a rising figure in Italy’s cultural world, too. His 2019 book, Humanity in Revolt, champions what he calls a new brand of solidarity. He tells NPR his focus is on abolishing discrimination against all workers — migrants and Italian citizens alike.

«We have taken up George Floyd’s plea,» says Soumahoro. «We can’t breathe because we’re invisible because of our working conditions, our poor housing, our place of origin, religion, skin color or sexual orientation, or because we are women.»

Therefore, he adds, «we are a union of invisibles who demand to be seen and to pursue our happiness.»

• migrant workers
• coronavirus
• Italy