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harvested. As with meat processing, picking fruits and vegetables is
labour-intensive and farmers depend on migrant workers to do the
work that locals will not. For example, Germany relies on 300,000 sea-
sonal workers to harvest its white asparagus crops, many of whom are
Romanian and were prevented from travelling abroad when Romania
declared a state of emergency and implemented highly militarized
lockdown measures.12 The need for these seasonal workers was so
great that Germany lobbied the Romanian government to temporarily
lift lockdown measures so that farm workers could board chartered
flights to pick their vegetables. Other countries have copied Germany’s
arrangement with Romania, including the U.K., which needed as many
as 90,000 workers to harvest fruits and vegetables and was unable to
recruit enough British workers despite a nation-wide appeal.13
Reliance on temporary foreign workers raises ethical questions.
Migrant workers are frequently forced to live and work in unhygienic
conditions that lack proper sanitation facilities; some have their pass-
ports taken away by employers, or are moved around at the whim
of temporary employment agencies to remote locations with limited
information about where they are going or what they are expected to
do.14 In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, existing vulnerabilities
may be heightened. For instance, the Jamaican government has been
requiring migrant workers bound for Canadian farms to sign a lia-
bility release for any injuries or losses due to COVID-19.15 Moreover,
12. Costi Rogozanu & Daniela Gabor, “Are Western Europe’s Food Supplies Worth
More than East European Workers’ Health?”, The Guardian (16 April 2020),
online: <theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2020/apr/16/western-europe-
food-east-european-workers-coronavirus>.
13. Lisa O’Carroll, “Romanian Fruit Pickers Flown to UK Amid Crisis in Farming
Sector”, The Guardian (15 April 2020), online: <theguardian.com/world/2020/
apr/15/romanian-fruit-pickers-flown-uk-crisis-farming-sector-coronavirus>.
14. See e.g. Sally C Moyce & Marc Schenker, “Migrant Workers and Their Occu-
pational Health and Safety” (2018) 39 Annual Rev Public Health at 351;
Gabriel Thomson, ed, Chasing the Harvest: Migrant Workers in California Agri-
culture (Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 2017); Bukola Salami, Salima Meharali & Azeez
Salami, “The Health of Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada: A Scoping
Review” (2016) 106:8 Can J Public Health e546; Sara Mojtehedzadeh, “A Study
Urged Better Standards for Migrant Workers’ Housing. Nothing Was Done.
Now COVID-19 Has Struck”, The Star (11 May 2020), online: <thestar.com/
business/2020/05/11/a-study-urged-better-standards-for-migrant-workers-
housing- nothing-was-done-now-covid-19-has-struck.html>.
15. Sara Mojtehedzadeh, “Migrant Farm Workers from Jamaica Are Being Forced
to Sign COVID-19 Waivers”, The Star (13 April 2020), online: <thestar.com/busi-
ness/2020/04/13/migrant-farm-workers-fear-exposure-to-COVID-19.html>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International