Protestors urge Canada to grant permanent status to migrants

Protestors say permanent status will help prevent abuse and allow foreign workers in Canada to defend their rights.

Migrant rights advocates in Canada have renewed their push for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau‘s government to grant permanent residency to all foreign workers, students and other undocumented people in the country when parliament resumes next week.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday during a virtual news briefing, undocumented worker and rights activist Danilo De Leon said he and others without status “cannot wait” any longer.

“My daughters are the reason I continue to sacrifice, being far from them and fighting for my status. I want to be reunited with them in Canada so they will have a better future … We cannot wait, make status for all a priority now. No one should be excluded,” said De Leon.

Organized by the Migrant Rights Network, the news conference comes just days before rallies will be held across Canada to demand permanent status for all – a call that has been gaining momentum among civil rights activists for months.

While regularising the immigration status of workers and others without permanent status has been a long-standing demand, it gained increased urgency as the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted systemic problems in several industries employing these laborers.

Rights groups estimate that more than one million migrant workers, students, refugees and others are in Canada without permanent immigration status, while hundreds of thousands of others are undocumented.

There were thousands of Sri Lankans entered Canada as refugees and asylum seekers during the Civil War in Sri Lanka.

Many work as domestic caregivers, in healthcare or custodial jobs, or in Canada’s highly profitable agricultural and food processing sector. And activists say a system that ties many of these workers to their Canadian employers leaves them vulnerable to abuse and with little recourse to defend their rights because the threat of removal hangs over their hands.

“These migrants often hold poorly paid, precarious jobs with little or no social protection. [They] find themselves at the mercy of placement agencies, which too often place them in situations of exploitation,” Amnesty International Canada said in a report (PDF) on Wednesday. “Their rights as employees are generally not respected, but they don’t dare denounce the situation because of the precariousness of their status.”

Last month, Jamaican farmworkers brought to Canada under a special, temporary migration programme said in an open letter that they are “treated like mules”, and verbally abused and threatened by their bosses. “As it currently stands, [the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program] is systematic slavery,” they said.

Jamaica has since said it plans to send a special, fact-finding team to Canada to investigate the workers’ claims.

(Agencies)