Pope urges Italy's 'Chinatown' to fight back against sweatshop exploitation and corruption

Pope Francis on Tuesday urged Italy’s textile city of Prato, home to a large Chinese community with widespread illegal sweatshops, to fight exploitation, illegality and corruption.

Thousands of people lined the streets of the Tuscan city to hear the Argentine pontiff, who arrived by helicopter for a lightning visit, addressing the crowds from the cathedral’s famous balcony, designed by Renaissance sculptor Donatello.

Everyone, regardless of nationality, deserves “respect, inclusion and a decent job,” Francis said, applauding the locals for their “constant efforts to integrate everyone” into their community.

However, “the life of every community requires we fight to the last the cancer of corruption... and poison of illegality”.

The deadly blaze in a garment factory at the end of 2013 killed seven people who had been living and sleeping in close quarters inside the workshop and who were trapped inside by bars on the windows.

Francis urged locals not to “resign yourself in front of apparently difficult situations of coexistence” with Chinese garment workers in the city, where numerous Italian firms have been forced to close up shop, unable to compete.