"Living in this thing is no good," says Nadezhda, pointing to a wine vat lying abandoned by a patch of waste ground on the plains of central Spain, Reuters UK says.

Nadezhda was one of about 40 ethnic Turks from Bulgaria who came to the vineyards of Secuellamos to pick grapes during the annual harvest.
They would sleep in 20 or so overturned wine vats, large concrete barrels, at the outskirts of the town in the region of Castilla-La Mancha.

The fact that this group travelled across Europe in search of work and the conditions they live in, were a reminder of the economic gulf between old Europe and some of the block's newest citizens, Reuters said.

The workers would get paid around 42 euro per day in the vineyards. Nadezhda told Reuters her husband would earn 10 leva a day at home in Sliven. "Life here (in Spain) is not good. There's no water, no gas. We have a proper home in Sliven, but no money," she said.

Bulgarians and Romanians would not automatically have the right to work in 13 of the 15 oldest EU countries, and with procedures taking up to two months, most ended up working illegally in the six week harvest season.

Jacinto Trillo, winegrower and president of a local wine cooperative, said growers hoped authorities would turn a blind eye to the illegal employment of Romanians, Bulgarians and others, recognising the importance of wine growing for the region. If caught, they could be fined up to 6 000 euro per illegal worker.

Socuellamos found itself in the centre of attention in September 2007 when, in the space of one week, three illegal workers died of heart or lung problems in the fields around the town.

Trillo said he had enough, next year he was going to harvest his vines mechanically, reducing the illegal workforce on his vineyard from 10 to 0.