Around 180 farm workers are flying in from Romania

A charter flight of around 180 Romanian workers is set to land at Stansted Airport tomorrow to fill vacancies at UK farms amid the coronavirus crisis.

The plane is the first of up to six to arrive in the coming months so that farms stay staffed with labourers.

Country Land & Business Association has warned that farms could be short staffed due to coronavirus travel restrictions.

There have been calls for Brits to step up and fill the gaps – but although many people made unemployed during the lockdown have come forward, it is not enough to fill all vacancies, according to the Times.




Farmers need around 70,000 seasonal workers to make sure crops are picked throughout the year, most of whom usually arrive from the EU.

While a major hiring drive to ‘Feed the Nation’ during the coronavirus crisis has had more than 27,000 applicants, only around 4,300 of them have taken up the offer of an interview so far.

The flight will arrive at Stansted (Picture: Getty)

After passengers leave the flight from Bucharest to London they will be bussed to workplaces round the South East and Linconlnshire.

The paper said that the flight has been chartered by an unnamed food produce company.

Passengers will be expected to observe social distancing rules and will not be allowed to leave Romania if they show symptoms of coronavirus.

It comes after many airlines, such as EasyJet and Ryanair, have suspended services between the UK and eastern Europe making it difficult for seasonal workers to get here.

It comes as a 35% fall in UK GDP has been predicted in the second quarter of this year by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Experts at the independent group predict this will happen if lockdown remains in place for a period of three months, followed by three months of partially lifted restrictions.

However, they estimate that the economy will ‘quickly bounce back’.

It is also predicted that the UK will see a rise in unemployment to 10% of the working population, which is around 2,000,000 people.

This will then likely ease off later in the year, the OBR states.

The Department of Work and Pensions has reported that 950,000 new claims for universal credit were made between 16 and 31 March, suggesting that a sharp rise in unemployment is already taking place.

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