Although the banning of flights to and from South Africa won’t have an impact on agricultural trade, concerns are mounting that interns who were meant to travel to the USA, Australia and New Zealand will not be able to travel for training and working abroad.
Now the American Farm Bureau Federation, along with more than 60 other agriculture groups, sent a letter to the Biden administration in the United States to request that agricultural workers be exempted from travel restrictions from South Africa.
The US was one of several countries to issue a proclamation that prohibits travel for individuals from several others, including South Africa, due to concerns over the newly reported Omicron Covid-19 variant.
The subsequent letter to the US government, addressed to secretary of state Antony Blinken and secretary of homeland security Alejandro Mayorkas, requests that the agencies ensure access to these essential members of the agricultural workforce. This could be done through National Interest Exceptions to H-2A workers going to the United States.
The letter states, “Instead of imposing travel bans that prevent critically needed H-2A workers from travelling to American farms or lead to added transportation costs that do not achieve Covid mitigation goals, farmers, H-2A workers, the department of homeland security and the state department should work together to allow workers taking appropriate health and safety precautions to travel to the United States directly from their home countries.”
Workers, it said, should be able to travel directly to the United States and can be vaccinated there with a CDC-approved vaccine.
Food production must continue
Almost 7 000 annual guest workers originate from South Africa and the majority of them arrive in the United States in February, March and April.
Many of these H-2A workers have a unique skills set and American farmers are counting on their timely arrival as they make plans for their upcoming growing seasons, the letter motivates. The request for National Interest Exemption is bolstered by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s designation of food and agricultural workers as essential during the pandemic.
“While protecting our nation from new variants of Covid-19 is critically important, it is in our national interest to ensure production of food, fuel and fibre. Considering the severe supply chain disruptions taking place, losing access to key employees who originate from these countries because of travel restrictions would further limit agriculture’s ability to grow safe and nutritious food,” the letter stated.
South African interns and workers may not be able to acquire visas to their destination countries if the travel ban is extended, says Judy Stuart, founder of the Future Farmers Foundation, who place interns abroad.
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