The Civil Guard uncovers a new fraud in the hiring of hundreds of seasonal workers in Morocco and Senegal

It is not the first fraud, but it is the most serious one detected so far around the program Collective Management of Contracts at Origin (GECCO), a mechanism managed and financed by the Government for employers to hire workers from abroad to compensate for the shortage of labour in the countryside. The Civil Guard has arrested 13 people and is investigating another six as alleged members of a network based in the province of Albacete that took advantage of this programme – launched 25 years ago to facilitate orderly migration – to enrich itself by illegally charging thousands of euros to hundreds of workers from Morocco and Senegal who were then exploited for their labour on farms, the armed institute reported on Wednesday.

The novel fraud had two other aspects. On the one hand, the scheme allowed many of these workers to subsequently stay in Spain illegally in exchange for more money. And on the other, they received illegal public subsidies included in the programme. Among those arrested are executives of a fruit company in Hellin (30,516 inhabitants), the epicentre of the fraud, and two businessmen from Morocco and Senegal with an “impeccable reputation with the public authorities” of their countries, who were in charge of recruiting compatriots willing to pay to obtain a contract that would allow them to enter Spain, according to the note from the armed institute. The Civil Guard has extended the investigation to other provinces in light of the suspicion that more companies may be committing a similar fraud.

The GECCO programme is a procedure for hiring people from other countries to fill temporary jobs who must return to their country at the end of the campaign. The aim is to curb irregular immigration in canoes from some countries. Interested companies make a job offer through the Government sub-delegations which are then sent to the countries with agreements to start a selection process. In addition to salaries, employers assume all transport, accommodation, food and health care costs for the temporary workers, and receive public aid and subsidies in return. In 2024, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, in charge of managing the programme, has signed agreements with around twenty countries, most of them in America and Africa.

However, the so-called Operation Bombvoyage of the Civil Guard has now revealed that this is not always the case. The investigation began at the end of last summer, after agents from the Information Group (GIC) of the Albacete Command detected that more than half of the 250 foreign workers who had been hired months earlier thanks to the GECCO program to collect the apricot and cherry harvest in Hellín had not returned to their countries and had remained illegally in Spain. Subsequent investigations revealed that a similar situation had already occurred in 2022, although then the number of migrants who had been hired by this company was about a hundred and had not set off alarm bells.

These initial suspicions were heightened at the beginning of this year, when the process of hiring seasonal workers abroad begins. At that time, the company asked the Government Subdelegation to bring more than 450 workers to Spain from Morocco and Senegal, a figure that far exceeded the company’s supposed labour needs.

Investigations have revealed that, in reality, GECCO had supposedly become a channel for illegal enrichment for those allegedly involved – the first estimate places the profits at more than half a million euros – which began in the African countries themselves. There, two of the ringleaders rigged the selection process for workers so that those who had paid the scheme between 4,000 and 6,000 euros were chosen, despite the fact that this process should be free of charge. To do this, they took advantage of their good relationship and influence with the authorities of these countries – in the case of the Senegalese businessman, IM, it is well known publicly – so that those who paid were among the preselected.

In this way, these workers managed to form part of the group that carried out the final interview with the Spanish businessman, who travelled to both countries to choose who to hire. According to sources familiar with the investigation, the scheme asked the seasonal workers to wear certain clothes that day so that the director of the Spanish company would know who had paid and choose them. This process was the first part of the fraud, since the GECCO programme requires that the selection of seasonal workers be governed by the criteria of “equal opportunities, non-discrimination and free participation in the process”.

Once they arrived in Spain at the beginning of May with a three-month contract, the organisation committed a second fraud by offering the workers not to have to return to their countries when the fruit harvesting campaign ended if they paid another amount of money, ranging from 4,000 to 12,000 euros. For this amount they were offered housing – in many cases without minimum living conditions – and new agricultural jobs with marathon and poorly paid days. They were even offered to illegally regularise their administrative situation in Spain to obtain a work permit. “More than 300 possible cases have been detected in the last three years,” the Guardia Civil note highlights.

Those who rejected the offer and decided to fulfil the contract were exploited by working marathon days for which they were ultimately given a salary of just over 200 euros per month after applying “illegal deductions” to their payrolls, according to the Civil Guard. In addition, they were forced to sign various documents to contract banking or telephone services and, in this way, the members of the scheme pocketed commissions. The fraud was completed by housing the workers in hotels or large isolated and unused estates for which, despite offering unsanitary conditions and a meager diet, they inflated the price in order to obtain larger public subsidies.

The first eight arrests took place on June 10. Among those arrested were the director of the farm and two businessmen from Senegal and Morocco. The heads of a legal consultancy specialising in immigration matters, which was responsible for giving the procedures a semblance of legality, were also arrested. That day, the Civil Guard also took statements from six other people under investigation and carried out three searches in the town of Hellín and another in Alhama de Murcia.

Ten days later, five more people were arrested and five more were questioned as suspects. They are all accused of labour exploitation, falsification of business documents, fraud and defrauding insurance companies and public subsidies. The court has also ordered the freezing of several financial products, including 15 bank accounts, some with high balances. Sources close to the investigation indicate that, after analysing the abundant documentation in paper and computer format, further arrests will most likely be made.

At the time of the intervention of the Civil Guard, there were about 300 North Africans and 152 Senegalese working in the company under suspicion thanks to the GECCO programme. After the arrest of the Spanish businessman, about 140 young Senegalese were relocated by the Spanish authorities to companies in the province of Segovia, two decided to return to Senegal and a dozen left their jobs and stayed illegally in Spain. Jose Naranjo reports.
Most Moroccans have been relocated to companies in Huelva.

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