Five men will appear in court in Sicily on Friday to face charges of trafficking women into the country from Romania after a Guardian investigation exposed the conditions in which the women were living.

The men, all of whom are Romanian, are accused of trafficking at least seven women into Sicily and forcing them to work in greenhouses in Ragusa for paltry wages, as well as forcing them into prostitution.

The trial will be the first in Italy to focus on human trafficking in relation to labour exploitation.

The men were arrested in June last year as a result of a police operation that exposed an organised, EU-wide human trafficking scheme between Romania and Sicily that is forcing men and women to live in conditions of modern-day slavery in one of Italy’s largest vegetable producing regions.

According to arrest warrants, the women were persuaded to move to Italy on the promise of jobs and decent accommodation. Instead, they were immediately taken to work in the tomato fields of Ragusa, where they were forced to work, often without pay.

The women, who lived in small shacks without heating, were forced to wear clothes taken from the rubbish. Police said they found women and girls living in dilapidated houses who were given rotten food to eat, beaten, and forced into prostitution. They were threatened with violence.

In March last year, the Guardian revealed that up to 5,000 Romanian women were forced to work on farms in Ragusa. The women said they had been subject to routine sexual assault and forced to work 12-hour days in extreme heat with no water. They also complained of non-payment of wages and being forced to live in degrading and unsanitary conditions in isolated outbuildings.

A weekafter publication, a delegation of Romanian ministers met provincial representatives and migrants’ rights organisations in Ragusa to discuss the situation. The Romanian government agreed to collaborate with Italian authorities to stop the abuses.

Antonino Ciavola, chief of police in Ragusa, who led the operation, credited the Guardian investigation with kickstarting police inquiries.

Two years ago, after prolonged campaigning, a strengthened law to end the practice of illegally recruiting and coercing workers came into effect. However, according to Cgil, the largest Italian trade union, much remains to be done.

“Things are slowly moving, but there is a lot to do’’, said Giuseppe Scifo,provincial secretary of the Italian General Confederation of Labour. “There are about 6,000 farms in the province of Ragusa. To date, there are only three work inspectors.”