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Just a few months ago, Mizamu Mahari could not imagine living on a farm two hours from Melbourne, cautiously climbing into a horse’s saddle.
“To be honest, it’s not like the city,” he said.
The 28-year-old electricity specialist from Ethiopia is one of six asylum seekers who arrived from Melbourne in mid-November to help meet the huge demand for farm labor.
“I’ve never been out of town, so I was scared for the first time … now, it’s getting better and we adjust to this,” Mahari said.
The six asylum seekers come from countries like Ethiopia, Iran and Bangladesh.
They are just a few of the asylum seekers and refugees who are taking up agricultural jobs across the country.
But overcoming obstacles to finding work and accommodation in Yarck, in the Victoria region, was not easy.
The mastermind behind this plan was university student Aviva White, a volunteer at the Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project (BASP) in Melbourne.
“We noticed a lot of coverage in the media about the huge labor shortage in the agricultural industry, that there was a lot of fruit to harvest and many jobs available on the farms,” he said.
BASP helps hundreds of asylum seekers, but often faces challenges finding work for them. Volunteers do not normally seek work in regional areas.
“We had to understand the situation there a little bit,” Mrs. White said.
That led to a collaboration with Regional Australians for Refugees (RAR), who found out about the jobs at Koala Cherries in Yarck and had a lead on a place for the men to stay.
“I know myself … I appreciate everything here,” said Morteza Darvishpoor, an asylum seeker from Iran.
He has been working as a pawn, while training to be a kickboxer in Melbourne.
“I saw it when I came here, everything is beautiful … Just like I was thinking, I imagined. Everything [is] good and nice, “said Darvishpoor.
Mayfield Farm has had Koala Cherries workers before, but never asylum seekers.
“These guys have been smiling,” said Nicky Bowe, whose family owns the farm.
“You know, they are happy to be here … They always greet me and greet me.”
The farm is about five miles from where the men work in Yarck, so when they first arrived, RAR volunteers asked for bikes.
“In two days we had 16 borrowed or donated. So we picked six of the best bikes and towed them to meet the guys,” said Marie Sellstrom of RAR Mansfield.
RAR not only found the accommodation, but stocked the shed with fresh produce in preparation for the arrival of the men.
“It works very well because they are happy and the employer is happy and they are producing a beautiful product,” Sellstrom said.
Challenging year to find workers
This year it has been particularly difficult for producers to find workers.
The COVID-19 restrictions have caused a collapse in the number of work and vacation visa holders, the backpacker workforce crucial to the agricultural industry.
Work and vacation visas have fallen from about 140,000 at the end of 2019 to about 50,000 now.
The National Farmers Federation (NFF) estimates there will be a shortage of 26,000 farm workers when demand peaks around March.
“Many growers are already making their business decisions and are planting less or moving away from crops,” said Tyson Cattle, executive director of the NFF horticulture council.
Quarantine requirements have slowed down a program to recruit more than 20,000 workers from Pacific Island nations.
“We expected to have 8,000 workers in the country before Christmas. We’re only at 1,500,” Cattle said.
“We just don’t have the capacity to bring in the workers we need … in such a short period of time.”
Koala Cherries in Yarck is one of Australia’s largest producers and is shipped throughout the country and to Asian export markets.
About 400 workers are needed in the field and 250 in the packing sheds focused on the intense 10-week harvest period from November to January.
When approached by the company about hiring asylum seekers, he did not hesitate.
“It has been a great initiative because we actually have amazing workers,” said Frances MacIsaac, director of recruiting for Koala Cherries.
They are paid the award wage, which is approximately $ 26 an hour.
During harvest, shifts are long, sometimes nine to ten hours a day, six days a week. Asylum seekers can earn a gross salary of more than $ 1,400 per week.
The men pay $ 160 a week each for their accommodation, and the Brigidine asylum seeker project prepares the rent for the first two weeks.
Renting in advance is just one of the barriers to overcome for an initiative like this to work.
“Without things like that or the help of RAR organizing bikes and having food deliveries delivered within the first two weeks, I don’t think it would have been possible,” said Ms. White.
Mahari hopes that more asylum seekers may have an opportunity like this in the future.
“If sometimes they get stuck in the city and don’t have another job or something … they can try another option like the town in the country,” he said.
“They may have more opportunities, and the people here are welcoming.”
