Migrant labour activist and Italy's
only black MP Aboubakar Soumahoro on Monday quit his Green
Alliance-Left (AVS) caucus and joined the Lower House's mixed
caucus saying he was bitterly disappointed with AVS's lack of
support over alleged migrant worker exploitation at two farm
cooperatives run by his mother-in-law at Latina south of Rome in
a probe which has also implicated his wife.
Italo-Ivorian Soumahoro, 42, who had already suspended himself
from AVS, issued a bulky statement rebutting charges he had
himself been at fault.
Soumahoro, who gained prominence as Italy's leading activist
against gangmastering and in favour of migrant labourers rights
and trade union organizing, said "I have frankly been astonished
and bitterly disappointed that, with the exception of some
isolated MP, there has been an absence of human solidarity and
political support by the AVS parliamentary caucus".
In mid-December Soumahoro defended his wife Liliane Murekatete
after it emerged that she was among six people being probed in a
criminal investigation into migrant-worker cooperatives run by
his mother-in-law.
It was already known that Murekatete's mother, Marie Terese
Mukamitsindo, was under investigation over allegations of fraud
and exploitation of workers regarding the Karibu and Consorzio
Aid cooperatives.
The case has severely embarrassed Soumahoro.
The six suspects are accused of involvement in the issuing of
false invoices that allegedly enabled Karibu to evade taxes,
sources said.
Investigators seized a total of around 650,000 euro from the
suspects - with 639,000 being confiscated from one and 13,000
from two others.
They said that tax crimes were committed in relation to
"invoices for non-existent operations" issued between 2015 and
2019.
Murekatete said that she had "nothing to do" with any wrongdoing
and Soumahoro said he believed her.
He added that he had nothing to do with the alleged wrongdoing
regarding the cooperatives and said he would continue his work
to defend the rights of migrant workers.
Soumahoro, a hero to many, became Italy's only current black MP
after the September 25 general election where he was
'parachuted' into a safe Green-Left seat at Modena in
Emilia-Romagna.
He turned up for the first parliamentary session in muddy
wellies to highlight the continued plight of the labourers whose
rights he has been defending against gangmasters and other forms
of exploitation for over a decade.
Police in Latina, a city founded by Mussolini after he reclaimed
the Pomptine Marshes in the 1930s, are going through documents
on funding and grants for the two cooperatives run by
Mukamitsindo.
The are sifting them for evidence of unpaid wages and rents,
judicial sources said.
Murekatete also came under fire after pictures of her wearing
designer clothes and accessories came out.
Soumahoro also defended her then, saying she enjoyed "the right
to fashion".
On Monday the MP said he had been "misinterpreted" by people
mocking him for that remark and said that "everyone should be
entitled to dress as they see fit".
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