Refugee Landworker Group: A New Approach to Harvesting Labor

Image - Refugee Landworker Group: A New Approach to Harvesting Labor

In Greece and other Mediterranean countries, a significant portion of agricultural labor, including harvesting, is carried out by migrant workers. Many of these workers face serious challenges due to their undocumented status and employment under informal conditions. These challenges range from substandard housing, bureaucratic obstacles, lack of access to healthcare, and discrimination, to wage theft and exploitative payment practices.

In the citrus industry, it’s common for farmers or export companies to hire groups of land workers on a daily basis, paying them by the kilo of harvested produce. This system is deeply flawed for several reasons:

  • Workers often face grueling hours during good weather, with no guaranteed breaks or weekends.
  • They bear the financial risk during periods of bad weather when work is unavailable.
  • Payments are usually handled by a group leader, requiring employers to trust that all workers are paid fairly, which isn’t always the case.
  • The system incentivizes speed over quality, leading to potential damage to the produce and lower-quality harvesting.
  • Without formal contracts, workers are excluded from accessing social benefits or workplace protections.
  • Poor oversight in such informal setups can also lead to unsafe working conditions, with little accountability for worker safety.

At ANYFION, staying true to our vision of “Leading Greece’s agriculture and trade transformation,” we’ve decided to take a radically different approach. In collaboration with Workland and the Stepping Stone Program by METAdrasi, we are creating a pioneering solution to address these issues.

We’ve established an internal harvesting group composed of accepted refugees directly hired by ANYFION for the entire harvesting season. Our approach offers significant benefits.

Our new employees are provided with:

  • Comprehensive training for the job.
  • Free housing during the season.
  • An above-average salary.
  • Free lunches on working days.
  • Access to language courses and healthcare through their employment contract.
  • For refugees, this creates a stable, fair entry point into the job market, helping them integrate into their new environment and build a foundation for the future.
  • For ANYFION, this approach improves harvesting quality by reducing worker burnout (since payment isn’t tied to kilos harvested) and fostering greater responsibility through long-term employment relationships.
  • For farmers, we issue official invoices for harvesting labor, which they can use for tax declarations and operational cost documentation.

This initiative represents a “win-win-win” scenario: promoting fairness and inclusion, improving agricultural practices, and supporting local farmers with a transparent and ethical labor system.

By rethinking how agricultural labor is organized, we aim to contribute to a more sustainable and equitable future for Greece’s agricultural sector.