Chile: Canadian transnational expels and abandons salmon workers in the Patagonian outdoors, after suspecting Covid-19
Workers for the Canadian salmon farm Cooke Aquaculture Chile, abandoned outside after having been expelled due to suspicions of Covid-19 in the Aysén Region. Photo: Diario El Divisadero.
Aysén, Chile, April 11, 2020 (Ecoceanos News). Fourteen workers from a salmon cultivation centre, located in the Cupquelan fjord, belonging to the Canadian transnational Cooke Aquaculture, were left in the outdoors, in the Harbour of the Exploradores Bay, in the Aysén region, Chilean Patagonia, after suspicions of one of them being infected with the Coronavirus.
After consulting the intendant of the Aysén region, Geoconda Navarrete, about the way in which the transnational salmon farm treated its cultivation centre workers, who had to spend the night outside in the cold patagonian outdoors, due lack of a place of refuge, the intendant stated that “as soon as we were informed of the complain about this situation it was requested that the Dirección del Trabajo investigate how the protocol was applied for the workers of the Cooke Aquaculture centre, after activating the Covid-19 protocols.”
On their end, the intendant of the region indicated that “as for the employees of the company that have been dismissed, the Labor Inspection, in the framework of its investigation, will determine whether this action corresponds or not, applying the relevant measures”.
The regional secretary of health in Aysén, Alejandra Valdebenito, stated that the worker from Cooke Aquaculture was treated in the Regional Hospital of Coyhaique, and was later examined by a specialist, and any suspicion of Covid-19 was discarded. The health authority of Aysén, stated that although the worker did not show fever, the paramedic posted in the Rio Tranquilo region did not discard the suspicion of Covid-19, as the official ruling determines that the one who needs to carry out the examination is the doctor of the Regional Hospital of Coyhaique.
Marcelo Santana, mayor of Río Ibañez, stated to www.eldivisadero.cl that “Our foremost preoccupation for the risk that the salmon farms present in the Aysén region, continuing to have an excessive rotation of staff, that exposes in an unnecessary way not only the other workers but all the communities that are related to the entity. Together with the ten mayors of the region, today we are informing the sub-secretary of fisheries of this situation, so that this is not seen as a single emergency, and so that this serves to adjust the protocols and operations in the region.”
Sources:
http://eldivisadero.cl/noticia-56380
https://www.salmonexpert.cl/article/descartan-caso-de-covid-19-en-centro-de-cooke-aquaculture-chile/
