Yvan Sagnet (born Jean Pierre Yvan Sagnet in 1985 in Douala, Cameroon) is a Cameroonian-Italian activist, engineer, and non-fiction writer best known for his leadership of NoCap, international association that fights against caporalato—a system revolving around the caporali, who illegally recruit tomato workers in a gang-like manner that Sagnet describes as comparable to “modern-day slavery”.
Sagnet arrived in Italy in 2007 to study engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin on a scholarship. After losing his scholarship in 2011, he went to Nardò, in Puglia, to work seasonally in the fields as a tomato picker. There he witnessed firsthand the brutal conditions of exploited migrant labourers: long hours, minimal pay, lack of contracts, and abuse by gang-masters known as caporali.
In summer 2011, Sagnet helped organise what became known as the “Nardò uprising”—one of the first self-organised strikes by migrant agricultural workers in Italy. The protest drew public attention to exploitation in the fields and contributed to political pressure that led to the inclusion of anti-gang-master provisions in Italian law.
He continued his activism by working with the trade union FLAI-CGIL and later finishing his engineering degree. Drawing on his experience, Sagnet has written several books, including Ghetto Italia: I braccianti stranieri tra caporalato e sfruttamento (2015) and Ama il tuo sogno: Vita e rivolta nella terra dell’oro rosso (2017), which document exploitation in the agricultural sector and the struggle for workers’ rights.
In 2017, he was honoured as a Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by President Sergio Mattarella in recognition of his work against modern-day slavery and labour exploitation. Sagnet is in fact a co-founder and president of NoCap, an organisation that promotes ethical supply chains, legal labour contracts, and respect for workers’ and human rights. Through NoCap’s “ethical label” and engagement with farmers, institutions and consumers, the association seeks to move “from protest to proposal” by creating sustainable and rights-based models in agriculture.
His activism has also intersected with cultural representation: Sagnet appeared in the film The New Gospel by Milo Rau, portraying themes of solidarity and resistance tied to migrant labour struggles.
Overall, Sagnet’s life and work bridge grassroots mobilisation, public advocacy, writing and social innovation—with a commitment to combating exploitation and building dignified alternatives to entrenched labour injustices.
Yvan@DAI:
2026 ~Roaming Assembly#33 ~ The Script That Passes Through Here ~ a field of unresolved presence
