Migrant workers in Canada exposed to ‘shocking abuse and discrimination,' Amnesty says
ONTARIO — 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. — CNN
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Saudi Gazette
a day ago
- Saudi Gazette
Israeli military recovers two hostages' bodies in southern Gaza
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We will not rest, nor will we be silent, until we return home all of our hostages — the living and the deceased."The couple's families recalled how they "went out for a walk on the morning of that cursed Saturday and never returned"."We welcome the closure and their return to a proper burial at home, in Israel," they an English teacher, and Gadi Haggai, who used to work in Kibbutz Nir Oz's kitchen, were last seen alive in a video they shared with a group chat at the start of the 7 October attack. They were seen taking cover in a field as incoming rockets fired from Gaza streaked overhead and the sound of gunfire was later told friends and relatives they had been wounded, before ceasing couple's daughter Iris Weinstein Haggai said after the attack her mother had told her they had been "shot by terrorists on a motorcycle and that my dad was wounded really bad". She added: "Paramedics tried to send her an ambulance. The ambulance got hit by a rocket."In December 2023, the kibbutz announced that both Judi and Gadi were killed that day and their bodies were being held hostage in Wednesday, an Israeli military official said the couple's bodies were recovered from the Khan Younis area following an operation based on "precise intelligence" from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet security said they could not disclose further details due to the sensitivity of the operation. However, Israeli Army Radio reported the intelligence was obtained through the Shin Bet's interrogation of a Palestinian fighter captured by Israeli troops in Gaza."We will keep doing the utmost for the mission of bringing our hostages back - the living, to reunite with their families, and the deceased to dignified burial. We will deploy all the methods and tools in our disposal for this goal," the military official Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged decision-makers to do everything they could to agree a new ceasefire deal with Hamas to secure the return of all the remaining hostages."There is no need to wait another 608 agonizing days for this," it said. "The mission can be completed as early as tomorrow morning. This is what the majority of the Israeli people want."US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was "united in prayer" for the Haggai family."Hamas must release all remaining hostages, including Omer Neutra and Itay Chen," he added, referring to two other Israeli-Americans who the Israeli military says were killed on 7 October while serving as soldiers and whose bodies were taken back to Prime Minister Mark Carney said: "The return of their remains is a time to begin to heal and to rest. We mourn with [Judi Haggai's] family. May her memory be a blessing."Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented cross-border attack almost 20 months ago, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken four people, two of them dead, were already being held captive in Gaza before the far, 199 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive, mostly through two temporary ceasefire deals with least 54,677 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the territory's Hamas-run health imposed a total blockade on Gaza on 2 March and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, collapsing a two-month truce during which 33 Israeli hostages and five Thai hostages were freed. Israel said it wanted to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining 19 May, the Israeli military launched an expanded offensive that Netanyahu said would see troops "take control of all areas" of Gaza. Israel also partially eased its blockade, allowing some food into the territory amid warnings from experts of a looming than 4,400 people have reportedly been killed in Gaza over the past three months, while 640,000 others have been displaced again by Israeli ground operations and evacuation of a new ceasefire deal faded last week, with Hamas and Israel remaining at odds over the conditions of the latest US said it was prepared to release 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 dead ones, which was the number specified in US envoy Steve Witkoff's proposal, in exchange for a 60-day truce and the release of Palestinian the group also repeated its demands for guarantees that the truce would lead to a permanent ceasefire, as well as a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the resumption of unrestricted aid called Hamas's statement a refusal of the proposal, and Witkoff said it was totally unacceptable. But a Hamas official insisted it had acted positively and responsibly. — BBC
Saudi Gazette
2 days ago
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Trump administration returns migrant hastily deported to Mexico back to the US
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Saudi Gazette
3 days ago
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Canada proposes sweeping immigration and security bill
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