Polish farmers ask the authorities to simplify hiring of Uzbek migrants

The Union of Polish Horticulturalists is seeking to simplify the hiring of citizens of a number of foreign countries, Spot reports referring to the local publication Sadyogrody.

Farmers say there is a shortage of workers this year. For this reason, the industry organization has asked the government to change the procedure for employment and remove a number of barriers to migrants.

In particular, for citizens of countries such as Uzbekistan, India and Nepal, it was proposed to cancel labor market testing. They are talking about checking by the local administration the impossibility of filling a vacancy with local personnel.

However, the request of the Union of Gardeners was not satisfied. The Ministry of Family and Social Policy of Poland reported that it has not yet considered additions to the list of countries for whose citizens a simplified recruitment procedure is in effect.

At the same time, the department, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is exploring opportunities for expanding simplified employment to new countries. In addition, work is underway on a draft of a new law on the hiring of foreigners.

Reportedly, the bill provides several reliefs for migrants at once. In addition to the abolition of labor market testing, presumably this includes the digitalization of workflow and the clarification of the conditions for issuing work permits.

Before that, there was already a growing interest of Uzbeks and residents of other Central Asian countries to work in Poland. According to official data, at the end of March, 2.8 thousand citizens of Uzbekistan were registered with the local social insurance fund.

In addition, the UK, Canada, Japan, as well as the EU countries are interested in attracting Uzbek migrants. Now the majority of citizens of the republic abroad work in Russia, but the geography of labor migration is expanding.