The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Giannakis, spoke about the lack of coordination between the competent services regarding the problems faced by farmers due to the fact that many seasonal workers who come to Cyprus to work on agricultural holdings, leave their jobs and seek political asylum. Gabriel.
In a statement after the meeting, Gabriel said this was the third time they had discussed the problems faced by farmers-employers in finding workers for employment in farms, under his own Presidency, without the four Ministries involved in the whole process having any suggestion as to how the problem is solved.
“The problem is that foreign workers, who come to Cyprus on contracts to work in agriculture, quit their jobs, apply for asylum and work illegally,” said Gabriel.
He gave the example of the need for a farmer to uproot potatoes, four seasonal workers, three of whom quit their jobs, leaving the crop in the field, and the farmer not being able to bring others up to to consider the cases of those who have left.
“You understand how dangerous and frightening this parameter is for farmers,” he said. -paragraph “> As a Commission, he said, they have submitted four” clear suggestions, but it seems that the four Ministries are not coordinating and can not find a solution “.
These suggestions include, inter alia, the rapid review of political asylum applications, the increase in penalties for those who employ illegal workers, and the increase in police checks. Mr. Gabriel said that while they are complaining to the Police “that there are illegal workers in certain places, however, they either can not or do not want to visit the specific places that are reported to solve this problem”.
Mr. Gabriel also said that there are so many ways, it is enough to have a will.
“We have called on the executive to listen to what has been suggested by both the agricultural organizations and all the Members of the Agriculture Committee to resolve the issue immediately,” he said. ELAM MP Linos Papagiannis referred to a “huge problem” saying that they had heard “exactly the same things we heard six months ago”.
He said that different views had been heard but their position is that “at last there should be consultation between the Government and the four Ministries involved”.
“The situation is difficult and at the end of the day, it pays the simple producer “said Mr. Papagiannis, adding that there are many ways to deal with the problem, but what they distinguish is that the excuses prevail.
He also said that there is no other state in Europe facing similar problems.
< p> Source: KYPE
