France Streamlines Process for Hiring Moroccan Seasonal Farm Workers

The departmental prefects and their services no longer sign the OMI (Office mondial de l’immigration) contracts of Moroccan and other nationalities seasonal workers. A national platform now takes care of it. More than 1,200 contracts - mainly for Moroccans - have thus been signed for the 2022 season in arboriculture and vineyards at the initiative of the FNSEA, reports La Dépêche du Midi.

On Tuesday, the regional FNSEA and the regional prefect participated in a working session in Sérignac, during which the union leaders welcomed this simplification. According to them, this has opened the door to liberalism. Private companies offer to be the intermediaries. "A Moroccan who wants to work here has to pay these intermediaries, it’s simply unacceptable," said the president of the FDSEA 47. "Before this new system," "we knew in which company the seasonal worker was to be recruited, and what he was going to do there. Today, that is no longer the case," he continued.

As early as 2021, the FNSEA was forced to change its recruitment method due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It made contact with the Moroccan authorities. The agricultural union is working for "a take-over of the transport of seasonal workers at the beginning of the season in late winter for strawberries for example". The prefect of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, Fabienne Buccio, representative for the State in Gironde, did not detect this flaw. "We realized that in this recruitment by companies, there was good and bad. Few are really serious, but the law cannot prevent it."