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One Hundred and thirty (130) farm workers from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), left the state for Toronto, Canada, this morning, Tuesday, 12th May; where they will take up jobs on various farms.

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour, Hon. Saboto Caesar; was on hand to bid farewell to the men who left on board a chartered Sun Wing flight. Addressing the workers at the Argyle International Airport, Minister Caesar wished them all well and invoked the guidance of God for their journey and well-being while in Canada.

He noted that as a country with an extremely strong belief in the Almighty God, it was very important to put God first before boarding the flight, "so I am just asking persons wherever you may be to remember that without God we are nothing, and that we are going out in circumstances which are very different, and that the world that we are going to meet is not the world that we left there".

The Minister also thanked both farm workers and those at the Department of Labour, for their co-operation throughout the process. “I want to thank you very much for your co-operation over the past few weeks, and I want to also extend thanks to the technicians and the staff at the Department of Labour.”

Speaking to the API just prior to the boarding, Minister Caesar thanked the OECS Secretariat and labour departments throughout the OECS, for the role they played in ensuring that the arrangements were in place for the workers. “They’ve been working very hard over the past two months to ensure that, even though there is a crisis, there is a pandemic in the world, we were able to mobilise farmers in SVG; we were able to work with employers in Canada and the Government of Canada, to ensure that today was possible.”

The Minister said that all of the persons who left the state were given the rapid test for COVID-19 and they all came back negative. The farm workers were also given a package with hand sanitizers etc., to ensure that they continue practising proper hygiene. Some of the workers will be going to fruit farms, while others will go to marijuana farms. Minister Caesar thanked the families for lending their family members to the world to work. He also urged the workers to save their money, and to make the best use of the opportunity.

  

SOURCE: Agency for Public Information (API)