(ANSA) - Foggia, August 7 - Foggia prosecutor Ludovico Vaccaro on Tuesday told ANSA that his office is investigating whether 12 migrant farm workers who died in a car accident yesterday on a state highway near Lesina, in the southern province of Foggia, were being exploited by local gang masters.
    A total of 16 migrant farm workers died in less than three days in two road accidents, including four who lost their lives Saturday after the minibus they were travelling on crashed near Foggia. Vaccaro said the State attorney's office has opened two separate probes.
    One investigation "focuses on the road accidents, to understand the dynamic and everything that may have caused them, although in both cases the drivers of the buses on which the migrants were crammed died", said Vaccaro.
    The other probe, he continued, "was started on the gang-master system".
    "We are trying to identify the companies for which the immigrants were working to verify the potential inhumane condition in which they were working", the prosecutor explained.
    "Schedules are being verified, to see from which hour to which hour they worked and understand whether there was exploitation and intermediation".