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Exploitation embedded in Spain’s seasonal worker programme [1]
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Date: 2025-05
The exploitation of migrant workers has been effectively written into Spain’s policies since at least the 1990s. Nowhere is that more clear than in its flagship seasonal workers programme GECCO (a Spanish acronym for ‘Collective Management of Hiring in Origin’).
Conceived at the turn of the millennium as a way to replenish Spain’s dwindling agricultural labour force, GECCO allows employers to temporarily hire migrant workers directly from origin countries. In 2022, 18,565 people from five countries were granted visas under the scheme. The single biggest group within this was Moroccan women, accounting for more than 90% of the total.
Reports of workplace abuse and exploitation are common among people employed under the scheme. While experiences vary, their stories reveal that the mistreatment of women migrating for work is a systemic issue within GECCO that has yet to be fully acknowledged, let alone addressed.
Spain’s intention to further grow GECCO makes dealing with its problems all the more urgent. In August, the Spanish prime minister said he wanted to increase opportunities for legal, temporary migration while on a visit to Gambia, Mauritania and Senegal. This suggests GECCO might soon be expanding into West Africa. It shouldn’t. At a time when migrant workers and advocates are calling for systemic reforms to rid GECCO of exploitation, Spain urgently needs to get its house in order before allowing any more workers to fall into this trap.
Everyone wins but the migrants
The transition from the European Economic Community to the European Union in the 1990s strongly impacted migration into and out of Spain. Historically a country of origin for migrant labour, it became a major country of destination. Between 2000 and 2009, Spain was the second largest recipient of immigrants in the world, just after the US.
As people migrating to Spain gradually gained regular status and climbed the job ladder, the government adopted measures to both curb permanent settlement and address labour shortages in certain sectors, particularly the agricultural and service industries. They sought to be more selective about who they let in, and to place stronger limits on how long they would stay.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/exploitation-embedded-in-spains-seasonal-worker-programme-gecco-migrant-workers-women/
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