Workers in Spain’s Strawberry Fields Speak Out on Abuse

Inside one of the rooms that temporary Moroccan workers share, in Finca La Cañada, in Almonte, Spain.CreditMaria Contreras Coll for The New York Times
A seasonal Moroccan worker at a shared kitchen in Finca la Cañada, in Almonte, Huelva, Spain.Maria Contreras Coll for The New York Times
Plastic greenhouses near Cartaya, Spain. Strawberries are called red gold and are the basis of a $650 million industry in the country, the largest exporter of the fruit in Europe.CreditMaria Contreras Coll for The New York Times
Inside one of the rooms that temporary Moroccan workers share, in Finca La Cañada, in Almonte, Spain. Maria Contreras Coll for The New York Times
Francisca Grindo Mora poses for a portrait in the Town Hall of Moguer, Huelva, Spain. Maria Contreras Coll for The New York Times.
Strawberries near Cartaya, Huelva, Spain. Maria Contreras Coll for The New York Times.
Fatima E., a seasonal worker who worked for two weeks and left because no work or money was offered, poses for a portrait in her temporary room in Huelva, Spain. Maria Contreras Coll for The New York Times.
Fatima E., a seasonal worker who worked for two weeks and left because no work or money was offered, poses for a portrait in her temporary room in Huelva, Spain. Maria Contreras Coll for The New York Times.
Notes used by a seasonal worker to learn Spanish.CreditMaria Contreras Coll for The New York Times
Workers on a farm in Huelva, Spain. Under a bilateral agreement, thousands of Moroccan women labor from April to June to cultivate and harvest strawberries in Spain.Maria Contreras Coll for The New York Times
Picking blueberries at a Spanish farm. Maria Contreras Coll for The New York Times
Picking blueberries at a Spanish farm.Maria Contreras Coll for The New York Times
L.H with her daughter in the house they share with nine other women in Spain.CreditMaria Contreras Coll for The New York Times
One of the women’s passports that are stranded in Spain. Maria Contreras Coll for The New York Times.
One of the 10 women who have filed lawsuits. Like the others, she asked for her identity to be kept secret for fear of how family members and others would react. Maria Contreras Coll for The New York Times

Strawberries in Spain, a $650 million industry, are called red gold. But 10 women who work in a region that produces 80% of the crop say they face harsh working conditions and a culture of sexual harassment. "I felt like a slave. Like an animal," one said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/20/world/europe/spain-strawberry-fields-abuse.html

Text by Aida Alami.