SALISBURY, Md. — Thousands of people are recruited to Maryland each year to become the crab pickers, landscapers, caregivers and others whose work is essential for maintenance of the state's seasonal economy.

While some H-2B visa holders will be out of work due to not being designated essential in the fight against COVID-19, others are part of essential supply chains that must continue to function. But at a time when the U.S. government is warning against all international travel, these frontline workers are risking their health and finances without the same protections Americans are afforded, migrant workers’ rights experts say.

“It’s an illness attacking everyone and anyone,” said Sulma Guzmán, policy director for Centro de los Derechos del Migrante Inc., a Maryland migrant rights advocacy organization. “To be a migrant worker that is leaving their home communities, their family, and coming to the U.S. to work, medical catastrophe would be very, very bad.” 

About 450 visa-holding workers are needed by Maryland seafood processors this year, but employers have worried federal visa caps would keep them from getting enough workers. Those who still chose to come to the U.S. started their six-month work contracts April 1.

Even in normal times, temporary foreign workers face challenges and lack protections against fraud, abuse and exploitation. For starters, minimum wage and overtime protections don’t apply, and their visas tie them to a single employer (meaning, if they don't like something, they can't go to a new job). Many start work indebted by recruitment and travel fees.

Several factors in combination make migrant workers particularly vulnerable in a pandemic, said Mari Perales Sánchez, CDM’s policy and campaigns communications coordinator. But for many, the opportunity to work for U.S. wages, often sent back to families abroad, is too important to pass up.

Though they do qualify to purchase subsidized insurance under the Affordable Care Act, the vast majority of migrant workers don't have health insurance, she said. Many lack paid sick days, which increases the likelihood that a symptomatic person would still show up to work.

Workers who travel to the crab houses of the Eastern Shore from Mexico do so largely by bus because it is inexpensive, Sánchez said. But the buses can be crowded, and the virus is thought to spread easily between people who are in close contact with one another, according to the CDC. 

When the workers arrive, they will usually share a room rented from their employer with several other people. As many as a dozen workers could be sleeping in bunk beds, barracks-style, unable to distance themselves by the recommended 6 feet, Sánchez said. 

On the job, federal law may promise agricultural workers access to handwashing facilities, but those can be located far away from where a person is working, she said. Some workers may also be unaware of CDC guidelines and unversed in the American health care system, with language barriers complicating communication, she said. 

Another problem: Foreign workers could likely be among the millions of American workers whose hours are cut due to the coronavirus' crippling effect on the economy.

Under Maryland's state of emergency, commercial fishing operations, including oyster aquaculturists and crabbers, are designated "essential," because of their role in producing food for the supply chain. But restaurants and other small businesses who normally buy up the seafood could be forced to close. Many are struggling to change their business model to carryout and delivery.

“Restaurant sales, the backbone of our industry, basically went to zero in a matter of mere days,” said Scott Budden, co-owner of Orchard Point Oyster Co. in Stevensville, Maryland. “Some operations, like ours, are pivoting to 100 percent direct-to-consumer retail sales to generate revenue. Others may not have this capability or are waiting for the coronavirus to pass before resuming sales."

Rural work locations are generally far away from hospitals; lacking personal vehicles, many migrants must depend on their employers for transportation, Sánchez said. If getting to the hospital or a doctor’s office means asking their boss for a ride, migrant workers may be even less likely to seek treatment, she said. 

Though the rural locations where many low-wage workers work may have less COVID-19 spread, many factors about rural life (including hospital access) make the virus particularly dangerous if it does take hold. 

“Something we can’t stress enough is to encourage and promote giving prompt medical attention to any symptoms that are related to COVID-19 and any illness in general, because if one worker goes to work sick for fear that their boss will not give them the attention needed, (they could transmit it to others),” Guzmán said

Coronavirus solutions for migrant workers

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has published a guide for seafood industry members who employ H-2B visa holders about how to combat coronavirus, emphasizing minimizing exposure risk, early detection and treatment. Maryland hasn't yet issued similar guidance.

North Carolina's plan recommends that employers create a COVID-19 prevention plan for their facilities. The document includes recommendations, such as that people who have tested positive should be housed only with other confirmed COVID-19 cases, should have separate bathroom, cooking and eating facilities from all others, and should have access to face masks. 

Centro de los Derechos del Migrante wants to see migrant workers nationwide guaranteed access to similar measures to those outlined in North Carolina's plan — they're advocating for isolated living quarters, COVID-19 testing and treatment as necessary, Guzmán said.

Though this year's Maryland legislative session was ended early, CDM is using other methods to advocate, including looking to the federal government's Families First Coronavirus Response Act and other packages to help fill the gaps.

In a letter to the federal departments of Labor, Health, Homeland Security and State, CDM and a coalition of 32 other organizations concerned with the rights of H-2B visa holders call for added protections. They argue the Trump administration should ensure migrant worker group housing and transit complies with CDC social distancing recommendations, and protect workers who may be laid off due to COVID-19 and are unable to return to their home countries due to border closures, among other protections.

“We all benefit when people are healthy and they’re showing up to work and they’re not getting other workers sick,” Guzmán said. “That goes back to the rationale for a paid sick days law that covers everyone. If your operation is dependent on these workers and one is sick and comes to work and gets everyone else sick … how do you keep your business going?” 

Some emergency legislation already in effect helps cover some gaps in the protections for migrant workers, but it's not enough, the CDM representatives said.

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (effective April 1 through Dec. 31) delivers direct payments to most taxpayers, greatly expands federal unemployment benefits and covers the cost of COVID-19 testing, among other benefits. Similarly, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act designates aid for small businesses affected by the coronavirus.

Both acts apply to private employers with fewer than 500 employees — but, companies with fewer than 50 employees may receive certain exemptions if it's determined the requirements would jeopardize the viability of the business. This could omit some employers of H-2B workers.

"We see exemptions of low-wage work, of agricultural work, of certain domestic work – we see those exemptions in so many localities and also in numerous laws that are supposed to set minimum standards of work," Guzmán said. "That’s why advocates throughout the country, that’s what we work for: to fight against those exemptions, because everybody should have access to (the country's) safety net."