The Greek government plans to enable hundreds of thousands of currently undocumented migrants to work in agriculture, construction and tourism jobs.
Greece, like other European countries, urgently needs to fill gaps in the labor market, particularly after many people left the workforce during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
The Greek migration minister, Dimitris Kairidis, has announced that the government is considering allowing as yet unregistered migrants to work in some sectors, in order to address the shortages.
The plan, which is similar to a reform in Italy in 2020, is expected to affect about 300,000 migrants who are undocumented or whose residence permits have expired.
"We need to see what to do with the population that is already in our country, without creating further magnets for others to come illegally," Kairidis said in an interview with the state broadcaster ERT.
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The minister is expected to outline the initiative at a cabinet meeting next month, a migration ministry official told the Reuters news agency.
'We want to go from black to white'
Greece, with a population of 11 million, has long relied on a large undeclared labor force of undocumented migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe. Most work in construction, as domestic workers, and on farms.
The agriculture minister, Lefteris Avgenakis, says the country needs about 180,000 land workers each year. In the past, some of these jobs have been filled using worker schemes with Albania, Bangladesh, India and Egypt, but delays caused by bureaucracy have led to shortages, according to the minister.
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"It is a fact that we have several thousand illegal workers in our country. We want to go from black to white, from undeclared to declared labor," Avgenakis said, adding that these undocumented workers were experienced in agricultural practices such as "the particularities and difficulties of raising sheep and goats."
In the construction sector, shortages have slowed public works projects such as the building of a subway system in Thessaloniki, and a new airport on the island of Crete, the migration minister, Kairidis, said.
He pointed out that regularizing the previously undocumented workers would not only help to address labor shortages, but would also boost public revenue with employment taxes and contributions.
With AP, Reuters