The Labour and Social Security Ministry has said it is almost at the end of its drive to source persons for the Canadian and United States farm work programmes for the 2008 season.

Labour and Social Security Minister Pearnel Charles, who had announced on December 18 that the deadline for the receipt of all applications would be the 31st of that month, told the Observer last Friday that the better part of the 4,000 applications have been received by the ministry.

"We are seeking to interview and select 4,000 workers between the United States and Canada," said Charles. "We distributed that amount of applications and the majority of members of parliament have returned applications. but we have not receivedall yet."

Although he was unable to give the definite number of applications now with the ministry, Charles said the outstanding applications would not prove detrimental to the process and there was "no need to extend the deadline".

"We have started recording. Not all the applications have come in, but that is not a serious problem because we have started the process," he said.

Charles said the selection of the workers will take place as soon as the recording of the names that have been recommended is completed. He said persons who are selected will be advised of the date they would be interviewed and the location.

Traditionally, interviews have been carried out in three sections of the island - Kingston, Manchester and St James.

Charles, in a recent statement to Parliament, solicited the help of all members of parliament to carry out the selection of persons from their constituencies to work on the programme.

At the time, Charles said members of parliament who had always played a pivotal role in sourcing persons for these programmes would be expected to play an even greater role in the process because of the many challenges facing the programmes.