The EU Common Agricultural Policy leads to increasingly intensive and concentrated agricultural production. This agro-industrial model speeds up the disappearance of smallscale agriculture and requires a seasonal and mainly migrant workforce.
Migrant workers’ rights violations have been documented across European and Mediterranean countries. Current legislation is insufficient to prevent these abuses. It requires coordinated action to be taken at the European level. This is why the program “Sustainable Agriculture and Migrant Seasonal Workers” was set up in 2006.
It is crucial to reveal the living and working conditions faced by those who migrate and to support them to mobilise. We refuse to accept a system of cheap agricultural products on the basis of low wages and rights violations. This program is based on collaborations between Confédération paysanne (an agricultural union member of Via Campesina) and host organisations in various European and Mediterranean countries.
Since 2006, dozens of volunteers went to meet women and men, peasants and workers, in Germany, Italy, Morocco, Palestine, Poland, Romania and Spain.
In 2014, we will gather facts and meet potential new partners in France, Greece, Portugal and the United Kingdom. We aim at leading collective actions and building a network to promote migrant seasonal workers’ rights and sustainable agricultural practices.
