Italy's foremost migrant labour and
crop picker rights activist and only black MP on Thursday
suspended himself from his leftwing party amid a probe into
alleged day labourer exploitation by two pro-migrant collectives
run by his mother-in-law.
Ivorian-born Aboubakar Soumahoro told his Green Europe-Left
caucus he was suspending himself from the group after his
mother-in-law, Marie Therese Mukamitsindo, was placed under
investigation by prosecutors in Latina south of Rome for
allegedly failing to pay workers and breaching their rights in
the former Pomptine Plain marshes reclaimed and turned into rich
farmland by Mussolini in the 1930s.
The cooperative, Karibu and Consorzio Aid, which were also run
by Soumahoro's wife Liliane Murekatete, allegedly also gave
irregular contracts to workers.
The Italian media have accused Murekatete of living high on the
hog while allegedly exploiting workers, running photos of her in
designer clothes and accessories.
Green Europe chief Angelo Bonelli and Italian Left leader Nicola
Fratoianni said Thursday that "with the utmost freedom,
Aboubakar Soumahoro has told us he has decided to suspend
himself from the parliamentary caucus of Green Europe-Left".
They said "we respect this decision which, albeit not mandatory,
shows the utmost respect that Aboubkara Soumahoro has for the
institutions and the value of the political commitment to
promote the issues of the battles in defence of the marginalised
that we have always shared with him".
Soumahoro entered parliament as Italy's only black MP a month
ago wearing muddy wellies to recall the migrant workers he has
fought to lift out of wage slavery and inhumane conditions.
Soumahoro has been fighting for years to raise the wages and
improve the working and living conditions of the migrant workers
who pick most of Italy's crops, especially in the poorer south
of the country.
Soumahoro tweeted: "I'm wearing these wellington boots, a symbol
of the suffering and hopes of the real Italy that enters
parliament with me in order to legislate, in memory of those who
have died of over-work, those who are discriminated against and
those who are hungry. With our feet in the mud of reality and
our spirits in the sky of hope".
Amid media pressure over the cooperatives probe, Soumahoro
posted a video of himself crying on Facebook at the weekend
saying the probe against a cooperative set up by his family was
baseless.
"Can you tell me what I've done?" said the 42-year-old Cote
d'Ivoire native.
"I've been struggling for people's rights all my life.Twenty
years in the streets to try to give people dignity. My life has
been characterized by the fight against all forms of
exploitation. You want me dead, I'm a clean person".
His mother-in-law, Mukamitsindo, told the left-leaning La
Repubblica daily Monday that "some mistakes were made, but
everything was paid to the refugees. Everything is recorded in
the books and I can prove it".
Her daughter Liliane Murekatete confirmed that "everything is
above board" in the cooperatives run by the Soumahoro family.
She also said that her husband "has never got involved in the
coops, and we never talk about them in the family," while adding
that the companies did not have money to promptly pay workers
"because the State does not pay us in time".
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