Portugal to recruit 400 Moroccan workers amid labor shortage

Portugal, which is faced with a labor shortage, is set to recruit 400 Moroccans who will work in the farming sector, under a Memorandum of Understanding signed Wednesday.

The MoU was signed, Wednesday in Lisbon, between the Moroccan National Agency for the Promotion of Employment and Skills (ANAPEC) and the Portuguese Institute for Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP).

The MoU aims to organize and set the steps of this pilot project, which is part of the employment agreement signed between the two countries. It will monitor the various stages of this operation, including the selection of Portuguese companies to hire the Moroccan workers and the training of the workers, including to learning Portuguese, before they go to Portugal.

The agreement will, moreover, accelerate the work contracts and visa and travel procedures, said ANAPEC director general, Noureddine Benkhalil, who indicated that the companies and trades concerned will be identified from next week.

For his part, IEFP president, Domingos Lopes, said the MoU aims to prepare the optimal conditions to receive Moroccan workers, vowing that all the necessary means will be put in place to guarantee them all the rights enjoyed by Portuguese workers.

Moroccan Minister of Economic Inclusion & Employment, Younes Sekkouri, who is on a two-day visit to Lisbon, welcomed the new partnership stating it represents a “new generation” of agreements for “decent employment” with full respect for workers’ rights.

He discussed actions to be made to guarantee the workers all the rights, related to work, social coverage and health, with several Portuguese officials, including Minister of Labor Ana Mendes Godinho and president of the Confederation of Portuguese Employers (CIP), António Saraiva.

The Moroccan official said that the Portuguese side has expressed its determination to implement this agreement and welcome the beneficiaries in the best conditions.

Morocco and Portugal signed last January an agreement on employment and residence of Moroccan workers in Portugal, which is part of the dynamics of modernization of partnership instruments between the two countries.

The text defines the admission and residence procedures applicable to Moroccan citizens for the exercise of a professional activity in Portugal, part of the two sides’ desire to strengthen cooperation in the management of regular migration flows.