A/HRC/4/19/Add.4 page 20 47. In addition, civil society strongly agreed on the need to adopt a comprehensive law on asylum separate from the one regulating immigration. They expressed concern that the appeal of a rejected asylum-seeker did not suspend the individual’s expulsion, and considered insufficient the existing measure by which, at the request of the asylum-seeker, the Prefect may grant permission to stay in Italy until the court’s decision on the appeal. It was also said that in practice the granting of refugee status seemed to be limited to certain nationalities, and that often humanitarian protection was provided instead. 48. Civil society welcomed the attempt of the new Government to introduce new legislation on citizenship. Concerns were nevertheless expressed regarding the linking of access to citizenship by minors with the situation of their parents, in particular regarding income. The new law is said to disregard the particular situation of Roma, who often lack legal documents and the minimum income. Thus, they would continue to be excluded from the benefits of naturalization and legalization exercises for unauthorized migrations. D. Access of migrants to employment, health and housing 49. Civil society emphasized the existence of segregation in the labour market as well as differences in treatment between indigenous and foreign citizens, reflected in poorer standards of safety, lower wages and inferior types of contracts. While male migrants work mainly in the building, metallurgical or agricultural sector, women migrants work mainly as caregivers and domestic workers and are highly represented in the prostitution and sexual exploitation sector.32 50. A journalist of the newspaper L’Espresso, who pretended to be a Romanian immigrant and worked in the agricultural sector for a week in Foggia (Puglia), publicized the slavery-like conditions faced by legal and illegal migrants working in the agricultural sector, particularly in Pulia, Campania, Calabria and Sicily.33 In Foggia, for which 1,600 permits for seasonal work had been foreseen by ministerial decree in 2006, there are said to be 5,000-7,000 migrants working under exploitative conditions. These male and female migrants come mainly from Bulgaria, Poland, Nigeria, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Senegal, the Sudan and Eritrea and are forced to work 16 hours a day for 15-20 euros (if paid), with no drinking water, little food, and constant exposure to racist verbal abuse and battery from the gangmasters supervising their work. There have been documented cases of death and severe battering of migrants attempting to escape. As reported in L’Espresso, a Romanian migrant was severely beaten after he was caught attempting to escape. After being left without medical assistance, he was finally hospitalized for two weeks to recover from serious wounds and septicaemia. Allegedly, as a result he was arrested for working illegally while the aggressors have not yet been brought to justice. Moreover, women migrants are subjected to demands for sexual services for obtaining and maintaining their jobs or the jobs of their male companions and are obliged to work long hours even if they are pregnant. 32 The Merlin Law banned prostitution in brothels and mandated the registration of prostitutes and compulsory medical treatment. It is the exploitation of prostitution which is punished by the law. In 2003, trafficking in human beings was punished by Law No. 228/2003, covering all forms of internal and cross-border trafficking for different types of exploitation. 33 http://espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio/I%20was%20a%20slave%20in%20Puglia/1373950.