"Seasonal labor, refugees to reinforce!" The Seine-et-Marne prefecture announced this Monday, March 30, in a press release appealing to the refugees to remedy the lack of labor in the fields, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.
"Following the epidemic of coronavirus, some market gardeners in the department do not have the necessary seasonal foreign labor and are struggling to recruit while the gathering of fruit and vegetables in the ground (in particular strawberries) looms in a few days and asparagus) and that the vegetables to be harvested in June must be planted now. These fruits and vegetables are essential to supply the Ile-de-France markets. "
#coronavirus #agriculture
Refugees as reinforcements!
Faced with the recruitment difficulties encountered by the agricultural profession and to meet the expressed labor needs, the Prefect of #SeineEtMarne mobilizes the refugees.
➡️https: //t.co/lmdoKvSglL pic.twitter.com/osMS7dWGqk
The announcement creating controversy on social networks, the prefecture of Seine-et-Marne had to justify this approach the next day, by ensuring that the refugees would be well protected by labor law. The press release speaking of "mobilized" refugees, many internet users concluded that the refugees would be underpaid, or even paid at all, by referring to forced labor.
Controversy on social networks
"A lot of delusions" says the prefect of Seine-et-Marne, Thierry Coudert, to 20 Minutes , for whom the confusion comes from the difference between asylum seeker and statutory refugee. "Many did not want to understand that they were refugees, therefore people who have the right to work and for whom we even have the duty to find them a job" he assures.
For him who had already carried out a similar project when he was prefect of Eure, by linking refugees with construction professionals, "an opportunity arose". In response to criticism of him for "using" the refugees, he said that aid to farmers was voluntary. "It's temporary but it will allow them for 2-3 months to earn money while continuing their job search" added the prefect, adding that farming is not an end in itself for these refugees engaged in various training.
With some knowledgeable in agriculture, it is nearly sixty young men who answered the call, aged 20 to 25. They will start working within a week.
"They must have the skills, but above all the desire"
Last week, the Minister of Agriculture Didier Guillaume had launched an appeal to people no longer active in view of the epidemic to join "the great army of French agriculture" while the agricultural sector in France is looking for some 200,000 seasonal workers. Last Thursday, 40,000 people had volunteered, according to government figures.
"It is not a bad idea, but it is something to think about," says Anne-Laure Leguicheux, project manager at Fermes d'avenir, an association offering refugees free training in market gardening and agroecology. According to her, agriculture is certainly a sector that hires but resources for integration must also be injected for these refugees. "Obviously, it is not because they are refugees that they must bring manpower in this sector in tension" she adds. "They must have the skills, but above all the desire."
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