Italy: Hosting center for seasonal workers inaugurated in Puglia

The Governor of the Italian region of Puglia, Michele Emiliano, said the new center inaugurated on June 1 in Turi is an “excellent hosting facility for seasonal workers,” and showed that his region was making efforts to integrate migrant workers.

The center is designed to host up to 90 workers, mainly African migrants, who work in cherry harvesting, mainly the variety known as Ferrovia, a local delicacy.

Emiliano visited the center together with Turi Mayor Giuseppe De Tomaso before inaugurating the 33rd edition of the Ferrovia cherry festival.

The center was opened thanks to funding amounting to 45,000 euros that was provided by the Puglia region. It is located in the city center with the “decided intention of promoting increasingly effective forms of integration, also because Puglia’s agriculture would inexorably perish without immigrants,” stressed Emiliano, according to a note released by the municipal administration.

During his visit, the governor met with a few seasonal workers, describing the hosting model implemented in Turi as the road to follow for other regions in terms of their immigration policies.

Mayor De Tomaso thanked Emiliano for the support provided by the Puglia Region, stressing the cooperation provided by the regional immigration councillor’s office, by Councillor Viviana Matrangola and by manager Vitandrea Marzano.

Seasonal workers will be hosted in five apartments of 190 square metres, with a common area and a canteen in downtown Turi.

“The inclusivity of Turi’s apartment housing model, in the city center, is a new element in the hosting of seasonal migrant workers employed in agriculture in Puglia. And it is the outcome of great cooperation between the department of citizens’ security, migration policies and social anti-mafia and the municipality of Turi”, said regional immigration Councillor Viviana Matrangola.

This “experimental model breaks with the past in Turi, when workers’ tents crowded the town and gave an overall perception of insecurity. This is the hosting and integration model on which the Puglia Region wants to build other hosting experiences in Salento, in the province of Bari and in Capitanata”, added Turi’s mayor, Giuseppe De Tomaso.