Buffalos grazing on the Pontine plain, south of Rome - their cheese retails at €15-per-kilo, but the workers caring for them are lucky to make €400 a month (Photo: Silvia Marchetti)

Feature

The exploited Sikh labourers babysitting Italy's buffalos

Migration

by Silvia Marchetti, Rome,

Buffalos grazing on the Pontine plain, south of Rome - their cheese retails at €15-per-kilo, but the workers caring for them are lucky to make €400 a month (Photo: Silvia Marchetti)

If you happen to visit the Pontine plain south of Rome, you'll likely see long-bearded Sikh rural migrant workers with red turbans tending buffalos and picking melons, aubergines and kiwis.

Roughly 30,000 Indian and Pakistani immigrants live in the province of Latina, the second-largest Sikh cluster in Italy.

Singh is a popular surname in the area - half work in the fertile fields and in local dairy farms to make mozzarella di bufala - premium mozzarella cheese with buffalo milk...