Migrant workers in Canada exposed to ‘shocking abuse and discrimination,’ Amnesty says

Migrant workers remove weeds surrounding strawberries plants at a farm in Markham, Ont., in 2023. (Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Migrant workers in Canada have been exposed to “shocking abuse and discrimination” while working under the country’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), according to a new report by Amnesty International.

In the report published Thursday, Amnesty criticized the structure of Canada’s TFWP, which allows employers to hire migrant workers for primarily low-paid jobs across sectors including agriculture, food processing, construction, and hospitality.

The human rights organization said laborers were vulnerable to abuse through “harmful provisions” in the program, including closed work permits that tie workers to a single employer who controls both their migration status and labor conditions.

Amnesty interviewed 44 migrant workers from 14 countries for the report, predominantly from what it termed the Global South, with most workers reporting unpaid wages and excessive hours. Some workers told Amnesty their contracts stipulated zero rest days.

Many workers said they suffered discrimination at work, including being tasked with the hardest physical jobs. Some workers said they suffered severe injuries or developed medical conditions due to unsafe working conditions.

One woman from Cameroon, Bénédicte, told Amnesty she had suffered racist psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of her employer while working on a two-year closed work permit on a farm.

After leaving the farm in July 2018, her employer canceled her work permit, leaving Bénédicte with an irregular migration status. “I did not expect to be a slave here,” she told Amnesty.

Another worker told Amnesty he faced “severe forms of control” by his employer.

Miguel, a Guatemalan migrant worker with a two-year visa under the TFWP, told Amnesty he was threatened and surveilled. He said his boss confiscated his passport and placed cameras in the container where he lived and the garage where he worked.

“The abuse experienced by migrant workers in Canada is deeply troubling, especially for a country that claims to be a leader when it comes to protecting human rights,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns at Amnesty International, said.

Amnesty also said many workers reported living in inadequate housing conditions, with a few saying they did not have drinking water in their accommodation.

An official at Amnesty International Canada, Ketty Nivyabandi, called on Canada’s leaders to implement reforms to “bring the program in line with Canada’s human rights obligations – and, ultimately, to respect the rights of workers.”

The Canadian government told CNN it was aware of the Amnesty report.

“The government of Canada takes the safety and dignity of temporary foreign workers very seriously and has been taking strong action to protect workers,” said Nancy Caron, the spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

“While in Canada, temporary foreign workers have the same employment standards, rights, and protections under federal, provincial, and territorial law as do Canadian citizens and permanent residents.”

She added the government was “continuously taking steps to strengthen its temporary foreign worker programs,” including programs to help workers obtain private health insurance, a tip line to report wrongdoing, and “open work permits” to allow temporary foreign workers to change employers.

Caitlin Danaher and Max Saltman, CNN