In Sicily, we have found a prime example of this exploitation in Mondello, the Italian island’s most popular beach. Bangladeshi vendors sell sarongs, beer, jewellery, towels and corn on the cob.
These vendors must toil long hours in the scorching sun for little pay. They are amongst thousands of other migrants working in the summer months, usually June to September, on Italy's beaches.
Beach vendors are maligned for their persistence, but they have no choice as they have no other means of income.
What little money the vendors make, they are often forced to remit home to pay the traffickers that smuggled them over borders on their dangerous journey to Europe.
© Kate Stanworth
