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5,000 Egyptian farm workers to head to Greece in pilot scheme

NurPhoto/Mahmoud Elkhwas
Egyptian farm workers will have the right to enter and stay in Greece for up to nine months before returning home

Egypt will provide 5,000 seasonal workers to help meet the growing needs of Greece’s agricultural sector under a pilot scheme agreed by the two countries.

Greece’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the deal could be a “guide” for future agreements signed by Greece and the European Union (EU) with third countries to combat illegal immigration.

“We hope that the first Egyptian workers will be in the Greek fields to help harvest the next crop early next year,” deputy foreign minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said after signing the deal with his Egyptian counterpart Ihab Nasr.

The Egyptian farm workers will have the right to enter and stay in Greece for up to nine months before returning home.

Greece and Egypt signed an accord in 2020 designating their exclusive economic zone in the eastern Mediterranean, an area with promising oil and gas reserves.

They have been also looking to build an undersea cable that will carry power produced by renewables from North Africa to Europe, the first such infrastructure in the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s exports of agricultural crops increased 11.4 percent year-on-year reach $2.47 billion in the 12 month to June 2022, Egypt Independent newspaper reported in July, citing Agriculture Export Council.

Arab countries accounted for 36 percent of the value of Egypt’s exports of agricultural crops during the first 10 months of the 2021-2022 season by nearly $879 million.

Exports to the EU amounted to about $566 million through the export of 726,000 tonnes.