Page - 506 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE506 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>.