Spain to Hire Over 19,000 Moroccan Workers for Berry Harvest Season

The figure corresponds to that announced by the Moroccan Minister of Employment, Mohamed Yatim, who was counting on 20,000 Moroccan women recruited during the 2019 season. In addition to married women with children, single women will also be able to participate in the recruitment stages.

The departures of Moroccan women to the Huelva region will be done in stages: women who have already worked will leave first (11,500), then those who were hired last year (more than 7,000), and finally the latest recruits.

It is estimated that 4,000 Moroccan women did not return to the kingdom after the end of their contract last year. The Spanish authorities have acknowledged that the selection process has been much more lax than in previous years, with the recruitment of some women whose only goal was to "flee" poverty. "Some women were 7 months pregnant and others did not work a single day in the fields, while some were only seen in the farms for a few days before disappearing into nature," explained a source to the newspaper El Pais.