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The UK government has announced that 30,000 seasonal worker visas will be made available for 2021, enabling EU and non-EU workers to enter Britain to help pick and pack fruit and vegetables. The number will treble the amount of seasonal worker visas made available in 2020.
The UK seasonal worker visa program was initially launched as a pilot in 2019, and has now been extended by a further 12 months. The extension will apply to EU and non-EU workers once freedom of movement from the European mainland ends on 1 January 2021.
The UK government’s announcement comes following a challenging harvest season in 2020, with farmers fearing that fruit and vegetables would be left to rot in fields as the industry struggled to attract worker numbers.
A new report by MPs has warned that food prices could rise unless the government changes its approach to its post-Brexit UK immigration system. According to an Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA) inquiry into labour in the food supply chain ‘getting food businesses to move away from migrant workers will take time.’
The cross-party group of MPs has instead suggested a more transitional shift away from migrant labour rather than a hard stop when freedom of movement rights between Europe and the UK officially end on 1 January, 2021.
The group has called on the government to be flexible in its approach to its post-Brexit UK immigration system in case its existing policy has an adverse effect on food businesses or food security. The MPs also urged the government to add job roles, such as veterinarians, to the Skilled Worker Shortage Occupation List.