Contrada Mulini Matinelle, town of PSG, Provincia di Potenza (Basilicata)
2009
a first group of Sudanese immigrants occupies this site near PSG
2011
the ghetto grows in size when a group of workers joins the site from Grotta Paradiso
2014
under pressure of public authorities, owners start destroying some houses that have been abandoned since the agricultural reform period (1950-1970)
2015
the ghetto continues to grow in size and number of inhabitants reaching a total of 500 during the harvesting season
2017
after the destruction of Boreano and Grotta Paradiso, Mulini Matinelle remains the biggest ghetto in the area, thus consolidating its close association with local criminal labour intermediaries
From a recorded conversation in Mulini Matinelle
C: “[asking an African worker] where do you come from?”
African boy: “Burkina Faso ... But when do I have to sign a contract with him?”
M: “No no, with me ...”
African boy: “All the people who are here are here for work [inaudible]. And everyone comes here to sign. Two other cars are here to sign ...”
M: “... Here they stop, they see the new house and they think it's the office. It's nothing, haha. I told these guys, I do it myself, I open the office for hire, and I make myself available. Place a bookkeeper, something, I don’t know ... The fact of living with these people ... I told this guy too, why don’t you go back to the field, in a short while I wil get angry with you, I close the water, close everything , and of you go... You know what he did? He arrived three days ago. I found the car open, he stayed in the car, put the blanket over him, put everything there [...] But they are used to such things...
Another boy: “but these guys who came here before, these six-seven guys, to sign contracts, do you know who they are?”
M: “… and they know who I am! ... Oh, they're all into the tomato... They're all here (…). Whenever they need a few bodies they see how to do it. Everybody comes, everyone who is need comes here…”
Another boy: “But how many are those who come? Twenty-thirty?”
M: “All those who do tomato in Palazzo. Oh what do I know...? I'm not going to count them. I know that all growers of the Farmers Association, all those who have tomatoes ... Also the public commissioner…. So, Basilicata region has thrown money for nothing (...) But these guys oh, they do not give a damn, they see an abandoned house, they stick their heads in and that’s it [...]
C: anyway, I can guarantee you something: if these things are happening in your home...
M: Hey but I'm not caporale ...
C: Nonono, I do not think so either and frankly I do not care. I only say this: if you can convince them ...
MP: to these ...
RC: ... to give your okay to those guys, they can organize the teams and move on...
October 2019: Police impound the 'yellow house’, which functions as a kind of neuralgic centre in front of the Mulini Matinelle ghetto. They arrest its owner, along with 5 other people as part of a judicial investigation into a local gang master clan.
