Sambaly Diaby worked in a farming company. A work accident with a machine caused his death. The investigating court number 2 of Santa Coloma de Farners initiated criminal proceedings in 2022. Sambaly’s family claims compensation for this tragedy in the workplace. At the moment, things have not gone beyond that claim. The procedure – the family lives in Africa – is being complicated. These relatives are asked for papers that are difficult to obtain in their country.

Kisma Sumareh died in 2021 at her workplace. He initiated criminal proceedings in the investigating court 4 Granollers. The claim is filed against the insurer of that company. The process is stuck because it is necessary to prove, in the country of origin of the deceased, the affiliation of his wife and the rest of his family.

Mahamadou Kande suffered a fatal electric shock while working in a greenhouse in Lleida. The criminal procedure is underway in the investigative court number 3 of the capital of Ponent. The problem, to move forward with the matter and collect the corresponding compensation, is repeated. It is necessary to prove in the country of origin that the family members requesting this compensation are their relatives. A procedure that could be predicted as easy, but in the country of that foreigner it is complicated.

They are only three examples. But there are many more. It is one of the lesser-known dramas of the added bill – after many have risked their lives to start a new one – paid by the families of immigrants who die in a work accident in our country.

The justice they find after these tragedies is not the most favorable to their interests. Although in honor of the truth, the blame for these judicial obstacles must be attributed more to the bureaucracy of the system itself than to the endemic collapses and delays suffered in those offices due to lack of resources and personnel.

The families of those immigrants who pay with their lives for their adventure in the first world not only suffer the irreparable loss. They are left without the money that their relatives sent them and, furthermore, when it comes to claiming compensation for those deaths, there are all obstacles and problems.

To help with these procedures and ensure that these foreign workers have the same rights as nationals when this happens, the first union of African workers has just been created in Spain.

A pioneering initiative to which the Sammos Legal law firm has joined, born to defend the rights of these immigrant workers and, above all, advise their families on the procedures to complete so that these claims reach a successful port. Most of the time, insurers in companies make their lives very complicated and the courts stand in profile.

From that law firm they affirm that in many cases the documentation requested from these relatives “does not exist in the countries of origin of the deceased or is very difficult to obtain.”

So the result of this added bill could not be more painful. “These families lose a loved one, they are left without the financial support of that relative who sent them part of their salary every month and, as if that were not enough, they are denied the right to be compensated for deaths caused by clear labor imprudence or lack of security at work ”, denounces Luis López, from Sammos Legal