In the green orchards of northern Spain, Said Doumbia harvests nectarines to “5.25 euros per hour“At 7:00 p.m., exhausted, he let the Red Cross take his temperature in a gymnasium open to foreign seasonal workers, due to an outbreak of coronavirus.
A new center of contagion is worrying the Spanish authorities in this fertile valley of Aragon (northeast) where thousands of immigrant workers – speaking Bambara, Bulgarian, Urdu or Romanian … – converge each year to pick the fruits.
For the very first time, the small town of Fraga (15,000 inhabitants) opened this gymnasium on Thursday to house up to 50 seasonal workers who had previously slept outside and thus detect any cases of Covid-19.
Arrived from Guinea (Conakry) in 2008, Said said only a few words in French to AFP before entering: “I am tired, I have to get up at five to work again at seven.“
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As soon as he arrives in the gymnasium, an infrared thermometer is pointed at his forehead. Then we invite him to disinfect his soles and his hands. After the shower, he can dine on a hot dish and join one of the carefully spaced camp beds, before the lights go out at 10 p.m. and breakfast from 5 a.m.
“Some work, others seek work“says Oscar Gracia, a Red Cross official responsible for setting up the original device.”Some are moved and tell us that finally they have a roof and a hot dish“.
These “homeless“are for many convicts of the fruit route, traveling the country according to the harvest.
Like Mame Cisse, 34, skinny in a gray T-shirt, arrived two years ago from Senegal: he picked up “onions in Albacete (southeast) for 6 euros an hour“, “olives in Huelva (southwest) for 56 euros for 7 hours“, and”looking for a job“now in Fraga …
“Without them we wouldn’t be able to do it”
The state of alert had just been lifted on June 21 in Spain – one of the countries most affected by the pandemic with more than 28,300 deaths – when a source of contagion was discovered in a neighboring town of Fraga, within a fruit company which had to close.
“250 cases were detected“In this area, almost all among seasonal workers, the health ministry said on Thursday when the World Health Organization was worried about a rebound in cases in Europe.
So Fraga – who had endured 14 weeks of strict confinement but only one death from Covid-19 – had to back down. Gatherings of more than fifteen people should be avoided while retirement homes are again closed to visits.
But the town hall wants to be reassuring, since another gymnasium in the city – opened on May 30 to isolate 11 contaminated seasonal workers – now only hosts seven.
Above all, do not “not stigmatize seasonal workers“, says the mayor, Carmen Costa:”we need them to come to work, we need them as they need us“.
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The resumption of the epidemic has only “accelerate“the plan to open the gymnasium, she says:”It was not fair and we cannot afford to have people sleeping on the street, in addition to the current health situation“.
The zone counts more than a thousand farms, for a production intended for 80% for export, worth 60 million euros, specifies the farmer Ignacio Gramunt, director of the organization mercoFraga facilitating commercialization.
“In Fraga alone, 5,000 seasonal workers are employed who collect fruit at 35 degrees, and in the area there are 12,000“he says,”and without them we wouldn’t be able to“especially in”macro farms“who need a lot of workers in spurts.
Himself shows his “modest exploitation of 23 hectares“: installed there all year round, ten Bulgarians – duly masked and left behind – pick flat nectarines for Germany.
Sanchez, “give us papers!”
One of the seasonal workers met near the gymnasium, a 43-year-old Senegalese man named Faye, had been sleeping outside for a month.
He only asks “a work permit“, to avoid having to borrow the papers of a compatriot.
To the head of government, he would like to pass this message: “Pedro (Sanchez), por favor, give us papers!”
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