Spanish Government finalising urgent bill forcing the unemployed and illegal Immigrants to help out on Farms

This highly controversial new bill that is being rushed through the Spanish Parliament (by video link) is bound to cause an uproar among human rights activists as it will “conveniently” legalise the thousands of illegal immigrants that have been living “under the radar” in Spain for years.

The Government is finalizing the approval of a royal decree that makes hiring in the field of unemployed and immigrants without work authorization more flexible to tackle the lack of labour that is affecting agricultural production throughout Spain.

The initiative aims to alleviate the shortage of seasonal workers in Andalusia, Murcia, Extremadura, Aragon, and Catalonia and avoid a food shortage and the expected rise in prices due to the pandemic. 

The decree-law, considers these measures “urgent” to guarantee production and will be in force until June 30.

The first alarm signal came on March 13, when Morocco closed its borders and blocked the exit of more than 11,000 women out of the 17,000 on their way to collect fruit in Huelva. Community seasonal workers, such as Bulgarians and Romanians, have also been unable to move.

The agricultural sector employs approximately 300,000 temporary employees, of which around half are foreigners, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Comment

Social distancing would be impossible to control on a busy farm, the unemployed will be forced to work alongside them? mmm, don’t think so, many would class it as a death sentence, we will have to wait and see what happens when the bill is passed and the unemployed receive their “call-up” papers.