Manolada migrant farm workers to get state protection
Three supervisors accused of opening fire last Wednesday on a group of Bangladeshi strawberry pickers on a farm in Nea Manolada, in the Peloponnese, were remanded in custody on Monday along with the farm’s owner.
Supreme Court prosecutor Ioannis Tentes, meanwhile, called for 35 of the migrant workers, including the 28 who were injured, to be given state protection as victims of human trafficking.
The three supervisors, aged 21, 27 and 39, who have been charged with attempted manslaughter, reportedly told a magistrate that they fired guns in self-defense after the migrant workers threatened them with makeshift clubs.
The 57-year-old farm owner, who was not at the site when the shooting occurred following a dispute about six months in unpaid wages, has been charged as a moral accomplice to attempted manslaughter.
Meanwhile, Tentes called for the 28 migrants injured in the shooting, plus another seven migrant workers employed on the same farm, to be given state protection, a move that would effectively prohibit their deportation indefinitely.
