The hard work of foreign seasonal workers in the face of Covid-19

They’re Romanians, Poles, Malians or Thais and are available each summer season to choose fruit and greens on European farms. This yr, their typically very precarious working circumstances are significantly highlighted by the coronavirus well being disaster.

174 circumstances in Bavaria, 250 in Aragon, 170 in Provence: examples of outbreaks of Covid-19 an infection have been plentiful on farms throughout Europe because the begin of the summer season.

And in line with Fernando Simón, chief epidemiologist of the Spanish Ministry of Well being, it’s not over: "it is rather probably that we’ll witness new outbreaks related to seasonal employees", he warned, whereas the harvests will proceed till October.

However regardless of the restrictions on journey, it’s not possible for fruit and vegetable producers to do with out this labor pressure, which regularly comes from Jap Europe or Africa.

In Might, farmers from a number of components of Italy even chartered their very own charters to usher in Romanian and Moroccan employees. Staying in Romania "would have been exhausting," Maria Codrea instructed AFP, whose annual revenue could be very depending on the harvest in Italian vineyards.

The identical goes for employers, not prepared to surrender this low-cost workforce: "with out them we wouldn't have the ability to do it," admits Spanish farmer Ignacio Gramunt.

Whereas their heavy workload for low salaries is frequently controversial, their reception and dealing circumstances are significantly criticized this yr throughout a pandemic.

In Spain, within the Andalusian village of Lepe, dozens of African migrants declare, for instance, that they’ve by no means been examined for the coronavirus. They’ve been tenting in entrance of the city corridor because the slums the place they lived with out water or electrical energy burned down two weeks in the past, for unknown causes, and are asking to be relocated with dignity.

"We sleep on these mattresses and containers as a result of we haven't had an answer for 14 days," laments Lamine Diakité, a 32-year-old Malian seasonal employee, interviewed by AFP.

In Italy, the federal government had promised in Might to regularize undocumented seasonal employees. However in actual fact, few producers have agreed to pay the 500 euros requested for this administrative act, in line with native media.

And lots of unlawful employees dwell in deplorable circumstances, enduring the “caporalato” system, the place intermediaries who put them in contact with farmers take a part of their wages.

Every authorities is subsequently making an attempt to use its recipe to make sure first rate circumstances with a view to finest supervise this arrival of short-term employees from all over the world. Within the south-east of France, for instance, the authorities have imposed work to accommodate seasonal employees on sure farms.

In Germany, strict hygiene guidelines have been issued by the Ministry of Agriculture: newcomers should “dwell and work strictly separate from different staff for the primary 14 days” and “not depart the farm” throughout this era. interval.

Somewhat additional north, in Sweden, the place yearly hundreds of Thai employees come each summer season to gather berries within the northern forests, employers are required to take care of distance when touring and for lodging on website.

"We distribute them, they are going to be lower than common in every unit. We even have gel for everybody, and guests have been banned. They need to put on masks when they’re collectively, "Leif Ögren, the boss of an SME specializing within the employment of those" bay employees ", instructed Swedish public radio SR.

Portugal has gone even additional by offering free entry to public companies to undocumented migrants in the course of the well being disaster, a measure that advantages seasonal employees who arrive with out a particular residence allow.

However the pandemic has led to a collapse within the variety of seasonal employees in some areas, equivalent to Germany, the place solely 40,000 folks may very well be accommodated this summer season out of the 300,000 international employees often recruited within the sector.

A scarcity of manpower which had penalties on the harvests, "not carried out fully on some farms", in line with the DBV, the principal agricultural union of the nation.

There stays the answer utilized by the British authorities, which often sees 70,000 seasonal employees arrive every year and which has launched an official "Decide for Britain" marketing campaign to recruit native employees, with a view to alleviate the scarcity.