December 20, 2023.- The headquarters of the Government Subdelegation has been held a new session of the Commission on Migratory Flows derived from the seasonal agricultural campaigns.
The meeting, chaired by the subdelegate of the Government, Marian Rueda, was attended by representatives of the State Administration (Subdelegation of the Government, TGSS, SEPE and Labour Inspection), the Autonomous Administration (ECYL), trade union associations (UGT), agricultural unions (UCC and ASAJA), professional associations (VIFINA) and representatives of the security forces and bodies, aims to assess the phenomenon of labor immigration derived from the need for temporary coverage of jobs for agricultural campaigns.
The coverage of jobs, through workers outside the European Union, is carried out through the GECCO Program, of circular migration and collective recruitment of workers at origin, with obligation to return once the work activity is finished, which can only be used when the Public Employment Service has certified the impossibility of covering these vacancies with job seekers from the internal market, as well as in the cases of workers of at least two years of experience in the Program.
The main novelty of the campaign of 2023 has been the implementation of the modifications introduced by the amendment of the Regulation of Foreigners, of July 2022, which has allowed these workers to access the alien identity document (TIE) with a validity of 4 years, which simplifies and economizes, after their return to their country of origin, their return to their jobs, fixed discontinuous, once the companies’ appeal for the campaigns of the coming years. It should be noted that the Aliens Office and the Segovia Aliens and Borders Brigade were among the national pioneers in the implementation of the issuance of this identity card.
In the year 2023, the Program has facilitated the arrival in the province of 550 workers of Moroccan origin who, between the months of April and December, have participated in all the work of preparation of the strawberry plant in companies located in the municipalities of Chañe, Fuente el Olmo de Fuentidueña and San Martín y Mudrián.
Since the first experience in Segovia of the GECCO Program in 2019, the number of companies and workers covered by it has not stopped increasing. A significant increase in participants was estimated for 2024 due to the difficulties of companies in finding workers for this type of activity (as of November 30, 76% of the workers affiliated in Segovia to the Special Agricultural System were foreigners), as well as the modification of the immigration regulations that promote the circular migration model.