Strawberry fields not so sweet

Wednesday, 23 June 2010 09:28

Written by Editor

The strawberry fields of Southern Spain have been badly affected by the bad weather and it has  had serious consequences for  the immigrant workers who have traditionally worked as fruit pickers. In the Almeria area, where the fruit pickers are mostly Moroccan and Rumanian women, the pickings this year have been very slim but the region’s illegal “ghost” workers say they have no intention of returning to their mother countries. The companies that used to employ them have also stopped employing those without work permits making it doubly hard for them to find work.

Many immigrants have built themselves shacks from scraps of wood and the plastic that covers the fruit growing sheds  - a grim outlook for those who thought they could make a living in Spain while also being able to send money home to help their families.Two years ago, in an attempt to halt immigration, Spain reduced the number of temporary contracts allocated to the countries of origin, from 183,600 in 2007 to less than 20,000 last year.