Fewer berry-pickers get permits.
This year the Migration Agency has received 2,397 applications for berry-pickers. Now when all the cases have been examined, only 89 people have been granted work permits to come to Sweden for the purpose of picking berries. Everyone else have been rejected, the Migration Agency writes in a press statement.
It is worth noting that the Migration Agency rejected all applications from berry pickers last year.
– The Migration Agency has made the assessment again this year that workers within the berry business are not having the working conditions they should have, which is why the agency has decided to reject the majority of the applications for Thai berry-pickers, says Hanna Geurtsen, in the press statement.
This year, all employers active within berry-picking has chosen to apply for a permit via the EU Seasonal Workers Directive. One of the differences, when you apply for a work permit for employment as a seasonal worker rather than the national main track for a work permit is that the berry-pickers this year are employed directly by a company in Sweden and not via a foreign recruitment agency.
– Regardless of what section of a law the application is examined within, many of the requirements for being awarded a temporary work permit is still the same. It involves there being an employment contract signed by both parties and that the terms of employment shall be in line with Swedish collective agreements. For the majority of the applications received this year, the requirements have not been met, says Hanna Geurtsen.
The Migration Agency’s examination is now completed but the berry companies that have received a rejection can appeal this to a court. So far the migration court has confirmed the Migration Agency’s decision in 1,280 cases that involved the same employer.