No doubt it was destiny, and a cruel one too, that the paths of Ion and Cosimo should cross. A 40-year-old illegal Romanian immigrant, Ion Cazacu is fighting for his life in a Genoa hospital after burns to 90 per cent of his body. His former employer, Cosimo Iannace (36), a small builder, is under arrest on suspicion of having doused Ion with flammable liquid and set fire to him.
The paths of Ion and Cosimo crossed in the town of Gallarate, some 70 kilometres north of Milan. Both men had been attracted to Italy's rich industrial heartland by the prospect of work. Ion came to Italy two years ago, just another in an estimated 250,000-strong army of illegal immigrants desperate for work.
Cosimo had moved to Gallarate from his native Calabria, Italy's poorest region. With energy typical of the newly-arrived, he put together a modest building business, specialising in the restoration of farmhouses, and employed up to 20 workers.
Many of the workers employed by Cosimo Iannace and others like him are illegal immigrants, mainly from eastern Europe, who find work for two obvious reasons. First, in an area of low unemployment (6 per cent and much lower in specific zones), Italians can pick and choose, opting not to do labouring work. Second, illegal immigrants earn less and have few if any rights.
So Cosimo Iannace hired Ion Cazacu, one of six Romanians employed by him on a piecework basis, known as lavoro a cottimo. In effect, this means the worker is paid for the job rather than on an hourly basis. It seems Ion and his comrades were paid about £4 per metre of paving laid.
What exactly happened between Ion and Cosimo on the evening of March 14th is still the subject of investigation. Ion, an educated man with a mechanic's diploma, may have pressed for his rights, may have asked for improved rates of pay. What is certain is that workers gave evidence that Cosimo assaulted Ion and deliberately set him alight.
In an interview with Corriere Della Sera in Milan last week, Mr Iannace denied allegations of racism, claiming that Ion's injuries were the result of an accident. "We had a big argument, that's for sure . . . He did poor quality work, he was late in finishing it and he often simply walked off the site with the job half finished. He had never worked as a brickie and you could see that.
"That night I told him that if he didn't like the job, given that he had his diploma and thought he deserved better, he could find himself other employment. We started to argue. In the course of the argument a bottle of petrol spilled and caught fire. It was an accident . . . believe me it wasn't voluntary. I nearly burned badly myself, the flames ruined a pair of shoes on me."
While the burning of Ion Cazacu remains the object of further police investigation, his story highlights a recurring Italian problem regarding the status of illegal workers who find themselves in a legal no man's land without rights or representation.
Lombardy, the region where the attack on Mr Cazacu took place, is estimated to have 160,000 people working on building sites. Of these, 50 per cent are in nero (off the books) - the majority of whom are illegal immigrants. A local trade union official, Claudio Croci, explained: "The number of these illegal workers is just going to increase. There's plenty of work around here and much of it will go to (non-EU) foreigners because these days Italians simply won't do certain jobs."
Mr Croci argues that local authorities either underestimate the problem or ignore it. He points out that his trade union has campaigned for the creation of a provincial "Consulta per l'Emigrazione" (an immigrants' advice bureau). The four biggest local authorities, including Gallarate, ignored the bureau, however, while an extreme rightwing group, Forza Nouva, has campaigned against one immigrant reception centre.
The Milan-based Tribunale dell'Immigrato, an immigrant rights group, points out that violence against illegal immigrants is widespread but often goes unpunished for the obvious reason that immigrants are frightened of turning to the police. Frightened, lest they be forcibly repatriated.
To some extent, the problems of Gallarate are those not only of affluent Italy but of all the affluent European Union. While Italy and the European Union continue to ponder the complex issue of the integration of African, Asian and European migrant workers (a nice term for economic refugees) into our affluent societies, Nicoletta Cazacu, wife of Ion, stands behind a glass screen talking to her pain-ridden, completely bandaged husband through a microphone speaker.
"Where we come from, you can just about keep going on £35 a month. That's why my husband came here to Italy two years ago. He's such a good man and look what's happened to him," she says.