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Months after the Huelva Gate scandal erupted in Spain, farm owners in the province argued that one out of four Moroccan strawberry pickers «violate the terms of the contract», concluded between the Spanish government and the Moroccan Employment Ministry, to stay in the Iberian country, reported La Mar de Onuba on Saturday.
According to these companies, 25% of the women sent to Huelva to work in the fields «have not returned to their country after their employment contract ended». For this year, farm owners say that 1375 women have stayed in Huelva, abandoning their jobs and refusing to return to the Kingdom.
These figures were revealed by a professional agriculture organization Wednesday, 18th of July, in front of José Alarcón, head of Spain’s migration agency and minister in charge of Migration. The latter has even visited to Huelva in a mission to investigate the circumstances, surrounding the presented statistics.
According to exclusive information obtained by the same source, farm owners in Huelva have even went further than that, slamming the National Agency for Employment and Skills Promotion (ANAPEC). The organization puts the blame on the Moroccan agency for the problems that occurred during this season, including the «serious sexual harassments and alleged abuses».
Moreover, farm owners criticized Anapec for its selecting procedures, urging the government to consider collaborating with other countries in the upcoming years.
Refusing to shoulder their responsibilities
On the other hand, NGOs in Spain believe that the numbers revealed by Huelva’s farm owners are exaggerated. Speaking to the same source, these NGOs explain that these women did not abandon their jobs in the farm but were fired and laid off instead.
According to the NGOs, other strawberry pickers were forced to stay in Spain to lodge complaints against their employers and denounce the inhumane working conditions.
These Moroccan workers were promised to work from March to July 31st but some of them were fired by the end of May and were told that the harvest season is nearing the end. Employers have even admitted that in a press release issued Thursday, indicating that the strawberry production fell sharply during the month of May.
NGOs contacted by La Mar de Onuba clarified that other women did not have money to pay for their trips back to Morocco and stayed in Spain with the hope of finding other job opportunities in other farms in the municipality.
Meanwhile, these organizations stressed that most of these Moroccan women do not speak the language and have no idea about the country’s laws and regulations.
In fact, several women have sought refuge in the Andalusia Work Syndicate (SAT) in Huelva to file complaints and report alleged abuses to the Spanish authorities.
