Dozens of Moroccan seasonal workers demonstrated on Friday in Casablanca in front of the headquarters of the National Agency for the Promotion of Employment and Skills (ANAPEC) to denounce their exclusion from the agricultural campaign, which has already started in Spain. According to El Pais, these women denounced that for the second year in a row, they were unable to travel to Huelva to participate in the strawberry picking campaign, despite having original contracts and have already paid visa fees. According to the Spanish media, 1,200 seasonal workers are in this situation and require a solution. For many of them, picking berries is the only way to support their families. «I'm desperate, our plan revolved around this operation, to go to work so that we could send money to our families. We don't know what we're going to do to pay all the expenses». Noor Lamarty, founder and president of the digital platform Women by Women, explains to the newspaper that these women «do not want to accuse anyone». «They only demand a solution because many gave up their jobs to be able to travel to Spain and paid the visa and travel costs before finding out that others with less experience left», she added. A spokesperson for Anapec who received several women assured them, according to Noor Lamarty, that those who have a visa will be send first during the next agricultural campaign in Spain, scheduled for next year. For the current campaign, it has been agreed to hire 14,000 seasonal workers, and a reserve of 2000 others, according to a spokesperson for Interfresa, the employers' association which brings together the main industries in Huelva. El Pais recalls that in the end, only 12,725 seasonal workers arrived in Spain, according to recent data provided by the government sub-delegation.
