Thousands of British employees will have to help harvest crops, because seasonal workers from other European countries cannot come due to the closing of the borders caused by coronavirus.
Every year about 30,000 people come to Great Britainfor seasonal work in agriculture, mainly from European Union countries.currently only a third of this number is in place. The harvest peak in Great Britain falls at the end of May and June.
A significant number of British people is needed, especially those who have been vacationed have a chance if they want to. There is huge interest from people who want to do it but still tens of thousands of people are needed. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) launched a campaign to encourage people in the country – especially those who are on forced leave or lose their jobs because of the crisis – to help harvest, but despite some response, it still doesn’t meet the needs of British farmers. DEFRA has not given the exact numbers yet, how many people applied for work in agriculture.
Regardless of the efforts of the government, British farmers are trying to remedy this deficit on their own. Less than two weeks ago, the first group of 150 seasonal workers from Romania arrived in the UK with a chartered plane. There will be five more flights by the end of June.
On the other hand, this week Ukrainian civil aviation authority at the last minute suspended a special flight of the UIA national airline from Kiev to London, which more than 100 Ukrainian seasonal workers were to fly to Great Britain. As the Ukrainian government explained, its priority is the safety and health of its own citizens.
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europa.jobs is a jobboard operating in six languages and a dozen European markets. Due to the current crisis, it became a little harder to find employees willing to go abroad but it’s not impossible. The number of CVs the portal receives from candidates at the moment on a year-to-year basis is smaller, but this is only a slight decrease, which means that there are still plenty of people willing to work abroad. After the recruitment was temporarily stopped when the borders were closing, the situation normalized and currently we are observing an increase in the number of job offers abroad from week to week – employers are adapting to the new reality, learning it and taking action quickly.
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