BRITS applying for fruit picking jobs are being rejected over foreigners because they do not need to live in on-site accommodation, furious applicants claim.

Farm owners are instead hiring cheaper Eastern European workers who live in fleets of mobile homes based on their land — because they can dock food and housing costs from pay.

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Brits applying for fruit picking jobs say hey are being rejected in favour of foreign workers Credit: Getty - Contributor

Brits who live locally to farms already have their own homes — and will “cost farmers more money” to hire, it is claimed.

The damning accusations come in spite of a government drive to encourage furloughed British workers to apply for some 80,000 seasonal jobs across the country in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

The farming industry has warned that thousands of tonnes of fruit and vegetables will rot in fields if the vacancies aren’t filled.

Some 35,000 Britons are said to have applied for seasonal worker vacancies so far.

Yet despite the patriotic call to arms, some 150 “critically important” Romanian fruit and vegetable pickers landed at Stansted Airport on Wednesday before being transported by buses to a 7,000 hectare super farm in East Anglia.

They will live in a fleet of existing accommodation on farmers' land, where they are usually charged around £70 a week for the privilege which is docked directly from their pay.

Brits who have applied for jobs say they have been rejected for “lacking experience” – despite adverts insisting “full training” will be provided.

Others, who come from agricultural and farming backgrounds, have simply been ignored.

Landscape gardener Anthony Hicks, 37, from Chessington, Surrey, applied for numerous fruit picking roles — but only heard back from one.

He said: "They said I'd not been accepted, no reason given.

"I have worked in vineyards, picked grapes, done landscape gardening for a decade.

"I'm willing to work and get off my backside and I don't understand why I'm not suitable.

"It's very demoralising to hear they need an army of people when it appears no one can get a sniff."

One 52-year-old woman, who has a career in fruit and vegetable sales, responded to a vacancy near London. But was then e-mailed by an Eastern European recruiter to say there were no vacancies.

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She told The Sun: “I believe the real issue is that farmers want staff they can put in their own accommodation on site — which of course they get charged for therefore making the labour rate cheaper.”

Kelvin Williams, an equine dentist, and his wife both applied for jobs at a farm in Kent - but they were rejected without reason.

He said: “I know loads of other people who have also applied for these jobs locally and been rejected.

“They want people from abroad so they can fill up their accommodation, caravans and so on, which they can then charge for and knock down pay.

“English people don’t need accommodation. They can put all the foreigners in caravans – which they already own – and save a lot of money.”

Ruth Wollerton, 57, a horse groom from Oxford, said her son applied for a fruit picking job on a farm but also heard radio silence.

She said: “We’re hearing it over and over again, that hundreds of people we know are applying for these jobs but it’s clear the farms simply do not want British workers.”

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The Sun contacted half-a-dozen firms advertising for seasonal workers yesterday to ask how many Brits they had hired. None responded.

A Government spokesman said last night: “While demand is currently being met, the farming industry will need more workers for the peak harvest months from late May.

“That will continue to be provided through existing seasonal work schemes, but the Government is also working with industry to help them manage and train new and inexperienced workers onto farms as they help with this effort.”

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