Seasonal Workers Need Support, Not Persecution

In recent days, hundreds of workers have been flown into Ireland as part of a series of flights chartered by private fruit producer ‘Keelings’. The message from social and mainstream media has largely been one of opposition towards the arrival of the eastern European workers.

Whilst much of this may be rooted in an understandable fear of the spread of the coronavirus, these workers are not the ones to blame. The EU has defined agricultural seasonal labourers as ‘essential’, and so they are permitted to travel within the EU. 

The real scandal in this situation isn’t that workers from abroad are being brought to Ireland for seasonal work, because this happens every year. As long as medical guidelines are abided by, the flying in of seasonal workers is no different to the thousands of medical workers who have returned to Ireland to help during this emergency. The real headline is the appalling treatment of these migrant workers. 

The union Unite has publicised that there was no testing, screening, or social distancing measures put in place for these workers, as they travelled to Ireland and to the accommodation provided by Keelings. There is no clarity that the medical guidelines, which are essential to preventing the spread of coronavirus, are being adhered to in the workplace or living accommodation for these workers.

This is not the first time that Keelings has endangered migrant workers, as Unite were contacted in 2018 with concerns over wages, benefits and accommodation. 

In 2016, the Keelings company submitted a motion to the Fingal council, urging them to lower the standard of accommodation for seasonal workers. They wrote that accommodation was best as a ‘mobile home, portacabin or other similar type accommodation’, and their aim was to put as many workers into these cramped spaces as possible, expanding the number of beds permitted in a space from 10 beds to 25.

The Keeling family are worth an estimated 100 million euros, and their company actively sought to lower the standard of living in the accommodation provided for seasonal migrant workers. 

The scandal is not foreign workers coming to Ireland to work. It is the cruelty of those who employ these workers, and their disregard for the workers’ physical and mental well-being. It is the cruelty of capitalism which requires fellow human beings to travel great distances to acquire an income to feed their families in order to live with a modicum of decency.

As the current pandemic continues to heighten fear and anxiety, our anger must be directed towards the people whose greed is putting lives at risk; not the workers they employ and endanger.