The mayor of Lleida, the socialist Fèlix Larrosa, insists on demanding work permits from the State Government for undocumented seasonal workers who want to work in agricultural campaigns like those who are arriving these days in Lleida, many sleeping rough spread throughout neighborhoods of the city. “To the people who have the ability to work because they do not have any pathology, because they have knowledge, experience, please, let’s help them. I can’t give them work permits, but they will have to. Or should you look elsewhere? “That is the political complaint that I am making,” Larrosa stated on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, when he assured that he has proven, through an entity that serves immigrants, that a city council “in the south” of Spain pays the ticket to Lleida for sub-Saharan people, he already proposed that the Government facilitate access to the world of work for immigrants without work permit.
Larrosa personally asked the Minister for Digital Transformation and the Public Service, José Luis Escrivá, when he held the portfolio of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.
“I suggested to Escrivá that they reflect in depth on a temporary permit for people who cannot work to meet the needs of our sectors. “We are talking about the agricultural sector, but we have delicate situations in others such as transportation.”
Larrosa also proposes creating “a network of agrarian municipalities” to coordinate the search for work.”
“I will ask the regional administrations and the Government of Spain to work in a network of municipalities that have agricultural activity as their first activity to prevent this from happening. Because it seems like everyone here is passing the buck.”
Fruita amb Justícia Social has responded to his statements regarding the payment of tickets to seasonal workers by a municipality in southern Spain, accusing him of wanting to “divert attention” instead of providing “solutions” to seasonal workers. The platform considers that their statements are a “distraction maneuver” and demonstrate a “lack of understanding and sensitivity” towards the reality that seasonal workers experience.
The mayor said on Wednesday that the situation is “absolutely controlled” and recalled that the device for transients in the agricultural campaign opens on June 3, 10 days earlier than in 2023 to advance the possible arrival of people who are in these circumstance”. On Tuesday it was already announced that those who have an employment contract will not be included in the device.” Last year, _he said_, we detected that there were people who were using public resources while they were charging and could pay for their accommodation.”
The Pagesos Solidaris platform, for its part, has detected a lower influx of seasonal workers than in other years, a circumstance that it attributes to the regulations on discontinuous permanent workers by which agricultural companies offer employment to employees who have already worked in previous campaigns.
