Thousands of migrant strawberry pickers from Morocco are trapped in Spain. Local groups call it a humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, companies are trying to end their dependence on Moroccan workers.

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Normally the companies that employ these seasonal workers provide them with accommodation during the harvest. Given the situation, the firms allowed them to stay and took on the costs.

Yet these women normally send almost all their earnings to their families in Morocco and keep "just enough do the groceries and buy their kids a present before returning," said Castellon. As a result, they have ended up relying on the help of neighbors and NGOs to survive.

The dark side of Europe's fruit trade

The agricultural model of Spain has been questioned for years because of the working and living conditions of its migrant workers.

Apart from seasonal pickers — mostly from Morocco, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria — hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants live year-round in shantytowns close to the fields. Last February, after a visit to the camps, the United Nations' Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights said: "They live like animals. Their conditions are among the worst that I have seen in any part of the world."

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