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Freedom of movement is back.....


Bulletguy

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It's not for Brits though.......they've got to stay here and start paying higher prices for everything.

 

 

Hunt for fruit pickers extends 6,000 miles as shortage bites

 

Fruit pickers are being flown up to 6,000 miles to the UK from Barbados, Nepal, Tajikistan, Kenya, the Philippines and elsewhere because farms cannot find British or European workers.

 

More than 16,000 labourers from 37 countries were recruited by horticultural farmers this year on seasonal workers’ visas, according to an analysis of Home Office data. In 2020, just 7,000 workers from 14 countries came to Britain.

 

Farmers said this was a sign of their ever-increasing struggle to recruit enough workers, with some crops left to rot in fields this year and growers forced to consider scaling back production.

 

In 2019, the government began a seasonal workers’ visa pilot scheme that allowed fruit and vegetable farmers to recruit labourers from anywhere in the world. This scheme was expanded from 10,000 in 2020 to 30,000. Before Brexit, most of these seasonal visas were used to hire workers from eastern Europe.

 

However, farmers said it was becoming harder to recruit Bulgarians and Romanians because many with settled or pre-settled status had taken less labour-intensive or better-paid jobs, while others returned home following Brexit and the outbreak of the pandemic.

 

Now recruiters are casting the net wider with workers being flown in from all over the world to pick everything from broccoli to strawberries.

 

The majority this year came from Ukraine followed by Russia, Belarus and Moldova. Nepal was joint fifth with Bulgaria. More than 100 pickers have been recruited from Barbados to pick blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, herbs and potatoes, a change from the sugar cane, yams and sweet potatoes grown on the Caribbean island.

 

Barbados’s ministry of labour said it expected the scheme would be popular with residents “who don’t mind labouring in cold climes, or being away for lengthy periods, spanning six months and over”. The minimum wage in Barbados is about £3 an hour compared with £8.91 for over-23s in the UK. Fruit pickers in the UK can earn up to £20 an hour.

 

Farms are also recruiting from the central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, while a small number are coming from further afield, from locations including Kenya, Nigeria and the Philippines. Farmers said they usually cover the majority of travel costs.

 

David Simmons, managing director of Riviera Produce in Connor Downs, west Cornwall, which produces cauliflowers, cabbages and broccoli for supermarkets, said most of the 300 workers recruited this season had come from Russia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

 

He said: “Over the last five years, we have been very reliant on Bulgarians and Romanians, but we have lost about half of our staff this year during the season. They’ve just decided to go back home or to Germany or other countries, or they have become delivery drivers or taken jobs which are easier than working out in the fields.

 

“We’ve increased wages by 12 per cent to try to get them to stay and most earn between £15 and £20 an hour.

 

“Local people don’t want to start early. They don’t want to work in fields. If the seasonal workers’ pilot does not continue, the horticulture industry in the UK is finished. It’s that serious.”

 

Asked about the air miles involved in flying in workers, he said: “That’s what we have had to do which, you know, is so soul-destroying. But, if people don’t come over and harvest crops in our country, these crops are probably grown abroad and imported to the UK, so you also have to look at the green credentials of that.”

 

He estimated that farms in Cornwall had left hundreds of thousands of pounds of produce to go to waste due to a shortage of workers.

 

In March last year, the environment secretary, George Eustice, urged farms to “mobilise the British workforce” to fill the gap left by EU workers and “make sure our excellent fruit and vegetables are on people’s plates”. However, the Pick for Britain campaign was seen as unsuccessful by farmers.

 

Last year, Simmons received 250 job applications from Britons. Of the 37 who accepted a job, only one remained after seven weeks. This year only one local person applied for work, but did not take the job.

 

Ministers have suggested that, when furlough ends at the end of this month and more Britons are made redundant, there will be a greater pool of recruits. Tom Bradshaw, of the National Farmers’ Union, said: “Farm businesses have done all they can to recruit staff domestically, but even increasingly competitive wages have had little impact.”

 

Four recruitment agencies have been selected by the government to help find workers, although their fees are paid by the farmers. One of them, Concordia, said it was recruiting workers from Moldova, Romania, Belarus, Ukraine and Barbados.

 

British Summer Fruits, an industry body representing growers, said the number of returnees from the EU with pre-settled status fell “substantially below the level expected by farms for 2021” leading to more recruitment from outside Europe.

 

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We continue to work closely with industry to understand labour demand and supply, including both permanent and seasonal workforce requirements, while encouraging employers to make long-term investments in the UK domestic workforce and automation technology.”

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hunt-for-fruit-pickers-extends-6-000-miles-as-shortage-bites-xtthzl3mp?utm_medium=Social

2016473050_TIMESfruitpickercountryrecruitment.JPG.8ac9126436df358b1de268598a1d96d1.JPG

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John52 - 2021-09-14 9:29 PM

 

Bulletguy - 2021-09-14 7:28 PM

 

 

“We’ve increased wages by 12 per cent

 

won't cover the Brexit crash in the pound will it..

According to a certain poster on here, business in Brexit Britain is "booming".

 

Good job we have all these migrant workers coming in from Moldova, Romania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Barbados, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Kenya, Nigeria and the Philippines. :-D

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Bulletguy - 2021-09-15 2:36 PM

 

John52 - 2021-09-14 9:29 PM

 

Bulletguy - 2021-09-14 7:28 PM

 

 

“We’ve increased wages by 12 per cent

 

won't cover the Brexit crash in the pound will it..

According to a certain poster on here, business in Brexit Britain is "booming".

 

Good job we have all these migrant workers coming in from Moldova, Romania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Barbados, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Kenya, Nigeria and the Philippines. :-D

 

Yes it is excellent news that they come when we need them .....

 

...... and go home afterwards. Just like it always was. ;-)

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747 - 2021-09-16 7:49 PM

 

Bulletguy - 2021-09-15 2:36 PM

 

John52 - 2021-09-14 9:29 PM

 

Bulletguy - 2021-09-14 7:28 PM

 

 

“We’ve increased wages by 12 per cent

 

won't cover the Brexit crash in the pound will it..

According to a certain poster on here, business in Brexit Britain is "booming".

 

Good job we have all these migrant workers coming in from Moldova, Romania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Barbados, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Kenya, Nigeria and the Philippines. :-D

 

Yes it is excellent news that they come when we need them .....

 

...... and go home afterwards. Just like it always was. ;-)

It proves the point that UK never needed to leave the EU to control it's borders yet Brexiters swallowed the myth they'd been fed.

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John52 - 2021-09-17 6:57 AM

 

Since illegal migration is higher than ever now, it looks like we need the EU to help control our borders :-S

 

What we really need is for the EU to seem as attractive as the UK. It says a lot when people with absolutely nothing will take risks in a small rubber boat to get out of it. 8-)

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747 - 2021-09-17 12:38 PM

 

John52 - 2021-09-17 6:57 AM

 

Since illegal migration is higher than ever now, it looks like we need the EU to help control our borders :-S

 

What we really need is for the EU to seem as attractive as the UK. It says a lot when people with absolutely nothing will take risks in a small rubber boat to get out of it. 8-)

 

Have you ever given any thought to what number of refugees "decide" to stay in EU countries compared to those that make the relatively easy final step journey here?

 

And that those focused on the UK as their final destination might have family and other links already here?

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747 - 2021-09-17 12:38 PM

What we really need is for the EU to seem as attractive as the UK.

 

So you want the EU to have a black market that illegal immigrants can disappear into - like the covid ridden sweatshops in Leicester, and HMO doss houses that keep no records.

Not going to happen.

So we need to clean up the black market in England. Factory inspections, accommodation inspections etc like they have in the EU that would soon find illegal immigrants.

But then we would need to join the EU so we could send them back to France like we used to do when we were members. :-S

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John52 - 2021-09-17 4:20 PM

 

747 - 2021-09-17 12:38 PM

What we really need is for the EU to seem as attractive as the UK.

 

So you want the EU to have a black market that illegal immigrants can disappear into - like the covid ridden sweatshops in Leicester, and HMO doss houses that keep no records.

Not going to happen.

So we need to clean up the black market in England. Factory inspections, accommodation inspections etc like they have in the EU that would soon find illegal immigrants.

But then we would need to join the EU so we could send them back to France like we used to do when we were members. :-S

 

Are you saying that this is a new thing?

 

What planet have you been on for the last 40 years?

 

That happened in the eighties and nineties with tens of thousands of Albanians claiming to be Kosovan and given sanctuary in the UK. You (and a few others on here) have bigotry that is out of control. 8-)

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