just to clarify: we are talking about seasonal workers from EU countries, including Bulgaria and Romania which are not part of the Schengen area. The Minister of internal Affairs Christophe Castaner said that all workers must have a temporary labour contract with the employers. To be on the French territory they would be allowed in for six months, and may, if necessary, and more.
According to the long-established practice over one third of the 200 thousand seasonal workers in France are foreigners – immigrants from Portugal, Poland and some other countries of Eastern Europe and North Africa. Insidious virus has hit almost all sectors of the economy, and primarily on agriculture. In mid-March, when they began to ripen strawberries, asparagus, tomatoes, lettuce, slammed the national boundaries of France, and many households found themselves in a catastrophic situation: there was no one to go to the fields and greenhouses to harvest.
Initially, it was decided to involve the harvest of Frenchmen from among those who were out of work due to quarantine. Was issued a call to register on the website with the eloquent title “Working hands, below your plate is full.” This appeal was responded to by 300 thousand people, ready to change the confinement in the four walls to working life in the lap of nature. However, the initiative did not work as expected. It soon became clear that the vast majority of volunteers were completely unsuitable for agricultural work. Some have had the necessary experience, skill, and others simply physically could not withstand the load. As a result of 300 thousand thousand, only 15 came to the court when required at least five times more.
Some seasonal workers, in particular from the border with France and Spain, are already working in local fields. Others expected in the coming days. It is not excluded that this will be used to Charter flights, as it did in Germany, which opened in April its borders to tens of thousands of Romanian seasonal workers.
Ukrainian seasonal workers – “workers”, migrant workers – are facing a number of insurmountable obstacles in the road in Europe. They can’t go abroad by air because of quarantine measures, and the Ministry of foreign Affairs of Ukraine demands from them in addition to the health certificate at least another three-month work contract and residence permit abroad.
Before the pandemic, we will remind, the authorities did not put the workers any demands and even encouraged me to check out. The foreign Ministry and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has denied the necessity of obtaining permission to leave, at least by road, but local media, citing diplomatic sources still report on some informal list going, who make up the diplomats and border guards. The meaning ��otdavaema obstacles, according to observers, is simple: get the taxes certified by the government of migrant workers and a Commission from the Western customers of the Ukrainian workforce. Today, new charters to Europe, the government have not announced, and stuck at home “workers” trying to escape from the Ukraine on their own. But this step only makes sense for those working in Poland.
Prepared
Since the beginning of the epidemic from Poland went, according to recruitment company Gremi Personal, about 175 thousand Ukrainians. Those who remained in the country usually have long-term visas and permanent job. It’s completely changed the situation on the labour market. According to the portal superbiz.se.pl to the places that had been occupied by visitors, for example, couriers, vendors, taxi drivers, arranged poles, including those temporarily returning from Western Europe. But the real problems – those challenges faced in the South of Europe, could begin in Poland in the early summer, when there will begin to keep pace with strawberries, cherries, seasonal berries, vegetables and fruits. Authoritative Gazeta Wyborcza in an article titled “Ukrainians will replace the unemployed poles?” reports that the return of seasonal workers is a matter of life and death for many Polish households. In may here in need of thousands of migrant workers, and in June tens of thousands. The answer posed in the title question: no. The poles have the habit of heavy agricultural work, they have no desire to engage in the harvest and no experience, and therefore their work is less effective.
Prepared
