WORK Greece to launch new worker visa scheme for Bangladesh nationals The Greek government announced that it would launch a new programme to grant seasonal worker visas for up to 4,000 Bangladeshis per year to enter Greece to work nine months per year, for a maximum of five years. Based on the same bilateral agreement with Bangladesh, an estimated 15,000 undocumented Bangladeshi agricultural workers in Greece will also be regularised (to work as seasonal workers, for up to nine months per year, and up to five years). Civil society has criticised the measure for its strict conditions: in particular, the permit will depend on employment certificates provided by the employers, which raises serious concerns around potential exploitation by employers; the worker must leave Greece for three months every year; and after a 5-year period, the individuals must leave Greece. Spain reforms immigration law to ease access to residence and work permits A recent reform of the Spanish immigration law has removed some barriers when accessing residence and work permits for non-EU nationals who wish to enter Spain and those living in Spain irregularly. The reform includes a range of changes to existing regularisation mechanisms and pathways for family reunification, labour migration and study, which should make them more accessible and renewable and/or improve conditions for people on the permits. It also introduces a regularization mechanism to issue 1-year permits for people already living (irregularly) in Spain for at least two years, to complete a training course to receive professional qualifications in an occupation needed in the labour market. It will be possible to renew the residence permit once, for another 12 months, if necessary to complete the training, and for permit holders to apply for a permit to work in the occupation after completing the training. While a welcome step forward, national civil society criticises the reform for its approach to migrants as sheer labour force to ease current labour shortages. At this stage, several aspects of the reform remain unclear: it is expected that further ministerial regulations will bring some more clarity.