A Moroccan seasonal agricultural worker in the “strawberry industry” died on Monday morning in a traffic accident in Almonte (Huelva) and 24 others were injured, including seven in serious condition and three life-threatening.
All those affected, including seven seriously, were evacuated to hospitals in Huelva and Seville. The drama began early in the morning around 6:30 a.m. when the bus transporting them to their place of work – greenhouses located between Almonte and the village of El Rocio – overturned in a roundabout on the A- 484, on the outskirts of the town of Almonte in Huelva. A sad fate for these seasonal workers hired by one of the largest agricultural cooperatives in the region, the company Surexport, which will have to bear the costs of repatriation and the care of the injured workers.
There were 39 seasonal workers on the bus, the slightly injured were distributed to different health centers in the region (Almonte, Bonares and Bollullos) while the others affected more or less seriously were transferred to the Juan Ramon Jiménez Hospital , Hospital Infanta Elena de Huelva, and Hospital San Juan de Dios de Bormujos, Hospital Virgen del Rocio and Virgen Macarena, all in the regional capital Seville.
Furthermore, the Consulate General of Morocco in Seville indicates that immediately after learning of the accident, the Consul General of Morocco in Seville, Abbah Sidi Sidi, went to the hospital in Huelva where he inquired about the state of health of some seriously injured seasonal workers.
Members of the services of the Consulate General of Morocco in Seville also went to the bedside of the injured admitted to the hospital of the city and took a set of necessary measures to repatriate the remains of the deceased. In addition, the Moroccan consular representation in Seville, in coordination with the Moroccan Embassy in Spain, has set up a crisis unit to closely monitor the situation of the injured and provide them with the necessary assistance.
The injured workers are part of the contingent of Moroccan seasonal workers hired at the source for the strawberry campaign who travel to Huelva each year. In total, some 14,800 Moroccan day laborers work in the more than 6,200 hectares of red berries planted in the fields of Huelva.