Migration: Anyone granted asylum will be required to work – How temporary employment agencies will operate

Temporary Employment Agencies, oregon TEAs, are expected to play a cardinal relation successful addressing labour shortages wrong the model of controlling legal migration.

The treatment astir the declining fig of disposable workers resurfaces each clip labour request peaks successful agriculture — pursuing the seasonal cycle, adjacent arsenic the clime situation is altering accepted upwind patterns.

The Draft Law

Within this framework, the enactment of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum is attempting to lick a longstanding puzzle affecting agrarian Greece: uncovering capable laborers to enactment the onshore without causing problems successful section communities owed to the beingness of migrants of unclear root and identity. In theory, the caller ineligible migration measure presented astatine the latest Cabinet gathering aims to connection a solution.

The thought is simple. Greece already has bilateral agreements for the recruitment of workers with Egypt and Bangladesh. However, successful signifier these agreements person not been functioning effectively, mostly owed to bureaucracy — peculiarly the workload placed connected consulates to vet each worker. The ministry aims to destruct these bureaucratic obstacles by making amended usage of existing agreements portion simultaneously implementing the strict migration argumentation to which it is committed.

Under the doctrine of “no much benefits — anyone granted asylum indispensable work,” the Ministry of Migration seeks to promote these populations to participate the labour marketplace to screen the important labour shortages that person emerged successful caller years.

The caller measure includes a scope of measures covering the full spectrum of ineligible migration: from extending residence permits and simplifying procedures to introducing caller visa categories for highly skilled workers and students. However, the astir important alteration concerns however to utilize the astir 20,000 refugees who are granted planetary extortion successful Greece each year.

The TEAs

The caller operation relies connected Temporary Employment Agencies, which volition enactment arsenic the cardinal nexus betwixt employers and workers. These agencies volition person requests for personnel, place disposable workers, and grip the process without lengthy consular procedures.

Experience from caller years with bilateral agreements, specified arsenic those with Egypt and Bangladesh, showed that implementation often stalled due to the fact that of consular interviews. Under the caller model, the leader requests personnel, the state of root guarantees the worker’s profile, and the TEA completes the process. The interrogation is abolished erstwhile the state of root certifies the worker, removing further obstacles.

Although the model volition initially trust connected existing TEA regulations, it volition aboriginal beryllium tightened. The ministry plans to present criteria regarding yearly turnover, warrant letters, and staffing levels to guarantee that lone reliable and susceptible agencies undertake this role. “We privation to bring successful large players to warrant effectiveness,” a ministry root told Proto Thema.

TEAs person existed arsenic regulated entities successful Greece for astir 2 decades, supervised by the Labor Inspectorate and the Ministry of Labor. Currently, astir 20 specified companies run successful Greece, though less are progressive successful the marketplace owed to strict requirements (minimum capital, warrant letters, imperishable staff). Some are subsidiaries of Swiss, Austrian, oregon American multinationals employing thousands successful tourism, telecommunications, logistics, and different sectors.

TEAs’ halfway enactment is to prosecute employees and past spot them with businesses that person impermanent oregon seasonal needs. Essentially, the idiosyncratic is employed by the TEA but provides services to the extremity employer. This exemplary has chiefly been utilized successful ample industries, banking, and logistics, but the Ministry of Migration present wants to widen it to negociate labour from 3rd countries.

In practice, TEAs already collaborate with the State connected unemployment and grooming programs. Their caller relation successful migration, however, is different: they volition go the official intermediaries for managing labour from 3rd countries. This means that, beyond accepted recruitment services, they volition grip the afloat process of entry, legalization, and placement of workers from countries with which Greece signs agreements.

Beneficiaries

For refugees who person been granted asylum, this represents a important change. Until now, though they theoretically had the close to work, fewer recovered organized employment due to the fact that determination was nary structured strategy linking them to employers. The caller model aims to capable that spread by placing asylum beneficiaries astatine the halfway of employment procedures.

At the aforesaid time, connection and vocational grooming programs volition beryllium developed successful sectors with labour shortages. Agriculture, tourism, and operation — each facing staffing challenges — are expected to payment from this labour force, arsenic good arsenic from workers arriving nether the bilateral agreements with Egypt and Bangladesh for up to 9 months.

Minister Thanos Plevris has made the ministry’s intentions clear, some successful Cabinet and publicly: “Asylum beneficiaries indispensable participate the labour market, portion benefits volition beryllium cut.” In a caller interview, helium stated, “Instead of giving benefits, we volition rapidly determination toward processing their skills according to the country’s needs. Once they implicit this programme (5–6 months), if they privation to enactment successful Greece, they volition person to work. There volition nary longer beryllium immoderate allowance for ‘paying your rent portion you beryllium and bash nothing.’”

For the astir 20,000 refugees granted asylum each year, mandatory labour marketplace integration represents a caller reality. If implemented transparently and effectively, the strategy could capable gaps successful captious economical sectors and trim undeclared work.

Public consultation connected the measure is expected to statesman wrong the month. Passing the instrumentality volition beryllium the archetypal step; the existent situation volition beryllium putting it into signifier truthful that the labour marketplace becomes the superior instrumentality for managing migration.

Migration Flows

This caller strategy comes astatine a clip erstwhile information intelligibly amusement a displacement successful trends. According to authoritative figures, successful June of this twelvemonth determination were 4,240 arrivals, compared to 2,652 successful June 2024. In July, conscionable earlier stricter measures were introduced, arrivals reached 6,109 compared to 4,056 past year. However, successful August, erstwhile the caller measures took effect, arrivals dropped to 2,874 from 5,928 successful August 2024. This inclination continued successful September, with 4,209 arrivals compared to 6,938 successful the aforesaid play past year.

The ministry interprets this crisp diminution arsenic grounds that closing “windows” for amerciable introduction tin beryllium combined with creating stable, institutionalized channels for ineligible migration.