The Secretary of Mobility and Migration Policies, and Secretary General of UPA Huelva, Manuel Piedra, together with the rest of the representatives of organizations in charge of managing the GECCO contingent, have begun their four-day stay in Tegucigalpa (Honduras) to select the male and female workers who will work in the berry campaign in the province of Huelva, from January to the end of June 2023.
Manuel Piedra has high hopes for this selection. "We want to consolidate the pilot experience we had last year with the aim of covering our province's entire berry campaign."
This year, the Andalusian delegation will be accompanied by representatives of the Department of Labor Migration and Social Inclusion of the IOM (International Organization for Migration). "The incorporation of IOM technicians is very relevant. This external body dependent on the UN will accompany us to verify that the candidates are properly informed about their working conditions and stay in the province," Manuel Piedra stated.
“On Monday, 7, we held a meeting with Andrea Mejia, the general director of the Temporary Work Program of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security of the Government of Honduras, who, together with her technical team, has coordinated the selection process and has organized how the two days of interviews will be held in Tegucigalpa. Since Tuesday, we have been conducting interviews in the offices of an official building of the Government of Honduras from eight in the morning to four in the afternoon. The contingent of Hondurans who will work in Huelva will join the people from Ecuador who worked in Huelva in the previous campaign and will work there once again," stated Piedra.
This selection, under the GECCO procedure, is being carried out for the second year in response to the request made by UPA Huelva in 2021 to the Directorate General of Migration of recruiting workers at origin in other countries, which up until last year only focused on Morocco. "Huelva farmers demand this measure to cover a clear and alarming lack of labor. This year, the response to the offer published by the SAE has been a resounding failure. We are very excited to participate and have a lot of confidence in this initiative. We've made a great effort in financial resources and personnel, and we've traveled to Honduras with the firm purpose of achieving good results that allow us to expand the number of workers for the next campaigns," concluded Manuel Piedra.
For more information:
UPA Andalucía
Manuel Piedra, Secretario de Políticas Migratorias
Tel.: +34 629 814 236
www.upa.es