UN envoy calls Canada’s use of migrant workers ‘breeding ground for slavery’

Canada’s reliance on temporary foreign workers is “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery”, a UN special rapporteur has warned, amid growing calls to overhaul the controversial program .

The damning report from the UN investigator Tomoya Obokata found that deep power imbalances and discriminatory practice in Canada cuts costs for companies but exploits against workers from the global south.

Obokata toured Ottawa, Moncton, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver to study the decades-long program, which relies heavily on workers from Mexico, Guatemala and Jamaica.

Throughout the country, he found workers were locked in debt bondage. Many had borrowed money to participate in the program and relied on their Canadian wages to repay accrued debts.

He also heard testimony of widespread emotional and physical abuse, wage theft, hazardous work conditions, long hours, sexual harassment and exploitation.

“The special rapporteur retains the view that the temporary foreign worker program serves as a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery, as it institutionalizes asymmetries of power that favour employers and prevent workers from exercising their rights,” said the report.

Under the current rules, Canada’s temporary foreign worker program allows companies to bring in foreign workers for sectors when an employer is not able to find local workers. In the past the agricultural sector has relied heavily on seasonal migrant workers.

Last year, employers were approved to hire 239,646 temporary foreign workers – more than double the 108,988 hired in 2018, according to Employment and Social Development Canada.

Employers are increasingly using to fill positions in new sectors, including in fast food and construction. The number of people hired for low-wage jobs in the healthcare sector is up more than 15,000% since 2018.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Canadians got a glimpse of the abuse and exploitation of rampant within a system long ignored by residents.

Chris Ramsaroop of Justice for Migrant Workers said rights groups had long raised concerns over exploitation of worker and that Obokata’s report was a “day of reckoning” for sectors that have long relied on cheap labour and turned a blind eye to reports of abuse and discrimination.

“Our frustration is not just about about the exploitation, but it’s about the racial dehumanization these workers face” he said, adding that he worried politicians might “weaponize” criticism of the program.

“We worry this could be fuel for the fire when it comes to the xenophobia and racism targets people with precarious immigration status.”

Ramsaroop said injured workers were docked pay or forced to return to the fields before they were healthy. “If they try to get access to health care or workplace compensation, they’re sent back. We download our healthcare system onto the countries of global south.”

Despite political pledges to make changes to the system, “nothing has changed, absolutely nothing”, said Ramsaroop.

Under the program, work permits are tied to a specific employer, preventing workers from seeking better-paying jobs. And while they pay into the country’s social assistance program, they are unable to access it – prompting a recent C$500m class action lawsuit. The legal action, which has not yet been certified, alleges elements of the program breach the charter rights of workers.

Obokata said the only way to end the exploitation was to grant workers permanent resident status – a move the federal government has so far resisted. Instead, the Canada’s employment minister has pledged “stricter and more rigorous oversight” and the possibility of sector-specific work permits.

But advocacy groups say this is a “divide and rule” tactic, meant to deprive workers of power, said Ramsaroop.

“We cannot continue the system of indentured labor,” he said. “We should never have one in the first place. And we can’t profit off of the blood, sweat, tears and sacrifices of Black and brown workers of the global south.”