Saiz opens the door to a second edition of Wafira, a benchmark circular migration programme with Morocco

The Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, during the closing ceremony of the first edition of the Wafira programme in Rabat

The Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, has closed the first edition of the Wafira circular migration programme in Rabat, a project thanks to which 600 Moroccan women have completed the training in entrepreneurship included in the programme, and which they carry out at the same time as their work in harvesting red fruits in Spain.

Once the programme is over, the participating workers return to their country, where they receive assistance from both the International Labour Organization and Moroccan institutions to start up businesses in sectors such as commerce, catering, agriculture and livestock farming, among others. Minister Saiz's three-day trip to Morocco includes a visit to some of these businesses in the Kenitra area.

Wafira Project: financial skills and empowerment

The Wafira project, which in Arabic means "abundance", is committed to a formula that improves the conditions of seasonal workers, allowing them to combine salaried work in Spain with training that enables them to become self-employed in Morocco. The initiative falls under the Ministry of Inclusion and is co-financed by the European Union; the management and coordination of the project is carried out by Cooperativas Agroalimentarias de Andalucía.

"This collaboration model meets the labour demands of key sectors that requested it, while boosting the transfer of skills and the development of communities of origin, consolidating the principles of dignified and beneficial migration for all," says Saiz.

"Far from being a simple experiment, this project has proven to be a catalyst for transformation, which is why we want a second edition," explains Elma Saiz. Furthermore, the minister emphasised that these projects have a strong gender component. "It is first and foremost about women's stories. Women with capital letters. Hard-working, courageous and motivated women, such as Aziza Zbirat, who has built a greenhouse with irrigation systems and solar panels, which has allowed her to diversify production and harvest products in high local demand," she explained.

"Spain and Morocco are joining forces, with the support of the EU, ICMPD and ILO, to move forward with a second phase of the Wafira project. We are currently waiting to confirm the participation of other countries in order to amplify its impact," she said.

The Wafira project complements the collaboration that already exists between the two countries through numerous channels, one of them being circular migration, the maximum exponent of which is set out in the Order regulating the collective management of recruitment at origin (GECCO). Thanks to this project, around 18,800 people, the vast majority of them women, will come to Spain in 2025 to fill positions of a seasonal nature, with exquisite supervision of their working conditions and labour rights.

Non official translation