Overseas labour for hire


Greece is in the final stages of creating a system for legal immigrationbased on a nationwide list of available jobs that will be posted at Greekconsulates around the world

KATHY TZILIVAKIS

Nearly 8,000 foreign workers will be invited to Greece this year to work on livestock and poultry farms

AFTER months of planning, Greece is now ready to put in motion perhaps its boldest and most ambitious plan yet to dead-bolt the back door to illegal immigration by opening the front door wider.

Officially, Greece's new employment-based legal immigration system is taking a firm step forward this month. Unofficially, however, there is still a long way to go before the country successfully woos as many as 57,000 non-European Union workers to meet this year's labour needs. An unrealistic timeframe, poor administrative coordination and a sprawling Greek bureaucracy could delay or even block its implementation.

Interior ministry general secretary Athanassios Vezyrgiannis, one of the top government officials overseeing this new global hunt for foreign workers, is optimistic that all will go to plan.

Vezyrgiannis told the Athens News that the creation of such a system marks the cornerstone of the New Democracy government's immigration policy. Fulsome in his praise, he said this new state job-finding initiative will finally promote a system of legal immigration based on Greece's labour market needs. The main objective, he said, will be to match willing employers with willing foreign workers.

Under immigration law 3386, which was passed by the government in August, a Greek employer can sponsor one or more workers from abroad for a specific employment where there is a demonstrated absence of workers in Greece. The employers must first certify to the government that they were unable to find locals with the required skills.


The majority of the vacancies involves agriculture. Farmers depend on immigrant labour to pick olives, pack grapes and gather vegetables across the country

Thirteen special regional committees were created in December to draw up a list of vacancies for 2006. The list, which was approved by the ministries of labour, interior and foreign affairs, was published in the Government Gazette on January 30. The next step is to send the list to Greek consulates around the world and for the vacancies to be advertised.

"Each committee has found out the number of immigrant workers each prefecture needs to fill specific vacancies," said Vezyrgiannis. "Once the foreign ministry sends the list to the Greek consulates abroad, all those interested to come here to work will be able to sign up. A list with their names will then be sent back to Greece so that the employers can choose the workers they want. For example, one employer can choose to sponsor five Romanians and five Bangladeshis."

According to Chryssa Varela, manager of the eastern Macedonia and Thrace regional immigration office in Komotini, the number of vacancies is based on labour market needs and the number of residence permits issued over the years. She said that the 6,393 invitations that they will send abroad this year are estimations. "The law required us to create the committee to liase with all our prefectures and OAED (Organisation for the Employment of Human Resources)," she said. "It is based on the labour needs recorded over the last few years and the number of employers who have expressed a willingness to hire from abroad."

The overseas workers who are selected by employers in Greece will be notified by the consulates and issued a special visa to enter the country. Once here, they will be eligible to apply for a temporary residence permit.

"This is the first time that such a system will be put to work in Greece," said Vezyrgiannis. "It is one of the most important provisions under the new immigration law."

According to Efstathis Tzouanakis, general manager of the region of Crete, the committee assigned to tracking labour market needs on the island took into consideration all relevant information from a variety of sources. "What our committee did not take into consideration was the agricultural sector," he said. "The reason for this is that we do not believe that there is a need to bring in workers from abroad. We believe that the current needs can be filled by people already on Crete. That's why our numbers are lower than many of the other regions."

"We will keep a close eye on the trends in the labour market and the demand and supply of foreign labour," added Tzouanakis. "This is the first time such a scheme has been endeavoured."


Greece will issue visas to 2,000 non-European Union nationals this year to come to Greece to work in fishing

A similar job advertisement and recruitment system was envisioned by immigration legislation passed by the former Pasok government in 2001, but it was never implemented. It remains to be seen whether the new system will be a workable one.

What is certain is that this new employment-based immigration policy has the backing of local communities. Members of the regional committees responsible for updating the nationwide labour needs each year are enthusiastic about this initiative.

"The new system is fantastic!" George Saragianidis, manager of the central Macedonia regional office in charge of immigration, told the Athens News. "Now, we're waiting for [foreign workers] to start applying... There is a big demand for work."

Based on the list of vacancies for this year, the region of central Macedonia will invite up to 39,842 overseas workers to fill vacancies in the local labour market. When asked how confident he is that the new recruitment policy will work, Saragianidis said he is. "Of course, it will put an end to illegal immigration. The legislators were on the ball when they were writing this."


ATHENS NEWS , 03/02/2006, page: A15
Article code: C13168A151


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