Migrant labour activist suspends self from party amid probe

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 24 - 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". (ANSA).