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The 7,100 Moroccan workers that have been stranded in Huelva, southwestern Spain, since the end of the strawberry-picking season will finally be able to return home. According to Spanish news agency EFE and local online newspaper Huelva Información, the Moroccan women will be repatriated by the end of this week, as part of an operation agreed on by the Andalusian and Moroccan governments.
«The Andalusian government will take care of the PCR tests», wrote the same sources, adding that negotiating the repatriation operation of these workers «took weeks between the Moroccan government, through its ambassador in Spain Karima Benyaich, the Spanish authorities and Interfresa», a body that represents farm owners in Huelva.
While the Andalusian government will be paying for the required tests, Morocco «will charter a ferry» to bring the seasonal workers home. «PCR tests start today and the estimated time for the results to be out is between 24 and 72 hours, so the first results will be known tomorrow», the same source added.
PCR tests on Wednesday for a return scheduled for Saturday
Some of the women also confirmed the return of Moroccan workers in Spain. «A company coordinator contacted us to announce to us that we will be repatriated on Saturday and that they will test us on Wednesday», Souad*, a Moroccan seasonal worker from the El Jadida region, told Yabiladi.
«A first group of 19 seasonal workers has already left for screening. My group will be next but there are also other groups. We do not know at the moment whether we are leaving from Huelva or Mazagón», she explained.
Unemployed for a month and a half, this seasonal worker recalls that the past period was tough on all of them. «It was not easy, given that everything is expensive here in Spain and that we have already sent money to our families», she said.
«From what we have been told, the employersupposed to pay for our transportation by bus and our tickets to Morocco from our wages.But for this repatriation to Morocco, the coordinator told us that our country will bear all costs.So we are waiting for the company to return this money to us before returning».
The end of a long wait marked by despair
Accustomed to this journey between Morocco and the Iberian kingdom for three years, this seasonal worker says she does not know if she will return to Spain next year, given what happened this season.
She said that she «already called» her family to tell them the good news. «They are very happy, since it is soon Aid El Kebir. We were really desperate before this announcement», she concluded.
Khadija, 53, a seasonal worker who has also been stranded in Huelva since mid-February, also confirmed the same news. «Officials from an association came to where we live to announce that we will be repatriated on Saturday», she said, adding that among the eight women living there «seven have been chosen» to go first.
«They told us that they would carry out coronavirus tests in the next few days before the trip», she added.
Khadija, whose first employment contract expired at the end of June, was luckier. She said, in fact, that she was hired for a second week-long contract to pick strawberries. The majority of seasonal workers have not been that lucky, and have been unemployed since mid-May or June.
The announcement of the imminent repatriation therefore comes to put an end to several weeks of uncertainty and a long wait which finally seems to be finishing.
