The exploitation of farm workers in Italy has come under the spotlight again after four men – three Afghans and one from Pakistan – were allegedly burned alive in a car at a petrol station in Calabria.

The attack was captured by a surveillance camera at the garage in Amendolara, close to Cosenza. Two Pakistani nationals have been arrested on charges of aggravated murder, according to public prosecutor Alessandro D’Alessio.

The video footage, which was broadcast by the state TV network, Rai, and other Italian media, appears to show the suspects pouring liquid into the back of the vehicle while it is parked next to a petrol pump. They set it ablaze and block its doors to try to ensure the victims cannot get out.

A fourth Afghan man, who suffered burns to his arms, managed to escape through the boot.

In an interview with the regional news service TGR Calabria, the survivor, a strawberry picker who shared a flat with the four victims, said the killers were part of a “huge Pakistani mafia”, adding: “It’s a miracle that I’m alive.”

He said the victims were threatened with guns and knives and had been forced to work without pay and received only food and board.

Facilitated by flaws in immigration and labour law, the exploitation of farm workers has become rampant under a criminal system known as caporalato – a lucrative, tightly run network of gangmasters who illegally recruit poorly paid labourers.

Francesco Savino, vice-president of the Italian bishops’ conference, said news of the murders “shakes the faith in humanity” and called for a “revolt of conscience” against exploitation, the gangmaster system and indifference.

“I say it forcefully,” he added. “Enough with the dirty silence of convenience. Enough with the grey area that sees, knows and lets things happen. Enough with the wicked habit of considering it normal for men from far away to harvest, work, live, sleep, travel, and die like bodies without a history.”

CGIL, Italy’s biggest trade union, described the murders as an “unspeakable horror” and urged politicians to “combat the abominations of daily life experienced by workers, often migrants, in our countryside”.

The video of the scene was shared on social media by Roberto Occhiuto, president of the Calabria region in Italy’s south. He said: “This is a chilling story that shakes our consciences and raises profound questions about the tragedy of migration, the value of human dignity and the responsibilities a civil society must assume toward the most vulnerable.”

Many farm workers arrive in Italy by boat, but plenty arrive legally by air after paying a gangmaster thousands of euros in the belief they are leaving their home countries for a genuine job.

Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister, pledged to clamp down on the gangmaster system after Satnam Singh, a 31-year-old farm worker from India was crushed to death by a machine on a farm in the Latina area, close to Rome. His employer is on trial for voluntary murder after allegedly leaving the injured Singh outside his home, with his severed arm placed in a fruit basket. Singh died in hospital two days after the incident in June 2024.

Meloni’s government has addressed the exploitation issue through increased inspections at farms and of employers and by expanding legal channels of immigration. Italy is issuing 500,000 new work visas for non-EU nationals by 2028, a measure also aimed at resolving labour shortages across various sectors. However, unions have criticised the policy because of bureaucratic issues with processing the visas.