By Mata Press Service

A new report from Amnesty International reveals widespread abuse and exploitation of migrant workers in Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), exposing systemic discrimination and labor violations.

Titled ‘Canada Has Destroyed Me’: Labour Exploitation of Migrant Workers in Canada, the report details how the TFWP’s structure allows employers to exert significant control over migrant workers, often leading to forced labor conditions, withheld wages, and even physical and psychological abuse.

The program enables Canadian employers to hire foreign workers for low-wage positions in agriculture, food processing, construction, healthcare, and hospitality. However, it ties employees to a single employer, limiting their rights and mobility.

Many workers interviewed for the report described harrowing conditions, including excessively long work hours, unsafe environments, and inadequate housing.

Some reported suffering physical, sexual, and psychological abuse while being denied access to healthcare and other essential services.

In one of the cases, Benedicte, a woman from Cameroon, said she arrived in Canada in 2016 on a two-year tied visa to work on a farm but was immediately subjected to exploitative conditions.

Forced to work 70–80 hours a week, she was assigned duties outside her contract, underpaid, and promised false benefits, such as bringing her children to Canada.

When she became ill with severe anemia, her employer cancelled her visa, leaving her undocumented and without recourse. “I did not expect to be a slave here,” she told Amnesty International.

Other workers reported being insulted with racial slurs, physically assaulted by supervisors, and forced into gruelling labor without proper safety protections.

A Jamaican woman recalled her supervisor telling her to “go back to the tree you came from.” Many lived in overcrowded, unsanitary housing, with some lacking access to clean drinking water.

The report highlights that TFWP workers, particularly from the Global South, face disproportionately high risks of exploitation.

In 2023, most TFWP permits were issued to workers from Mexico, India, the Philippines, Guatemala, and Jamaica. Unlike other temporary visa schemes, the TFWP restricts migrants to a single employer, limiting their ability to escape abuse or seek better opportunities.

For many, the consequences of speaking out are dire.

Workers who report mistreatment risk immediate termination, loss of their legal status, and deportation. Amnesty International found that some employers actively used the threat of deportation to silence workers. In extreme cases, workers were forcibly taken to the airport against their will.

Women under the TFWP face additional discrimination, often subjected to gender-based violence. Some were forced to sign contracts stipulating that they would not become pregnant during their employment, and if they did, they risked losing their jobs and being forced to repay recruitment fees.

Despite being aware of these systemic abuses, Canadian authorities have taken only minimal steps to address the situation, Amnesty International said. While government inspections have increased, the root causes of labour exploitation—such as tied visas—remain unaddressed.

“The abuse experienced by migrant workers in Canada is deeply troubling, especially for a country that claims to be a leader in human rights,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy, and Campaigns at Amnesty International.

“Labour exploitation of migrant workers under Canada’s temporary visa program is not the result of just a few unscrupulous employers. Instead, the program has been designed in a way that enables these abuses.”

Guevara-Rosas called on the Canadian government to abolish tied visas and replace them with open work permits, allowing migrant workers the same job mobility as Canadian citizens. She warned that without such changes, exploitation would persist.

Canada’s TFWP, established in 1973, has undergone several reforms over the years but continues to rely on tied visas as a core feature.

 In 2024, the government introduced further restrictions aimed at reducing the number of migrant workers and shortening visa durations. Critics argue that this move exacerbates the precarity faced by foreign laborers.

As calls for reform grow louder, labour rights advocates and organizations like Amnesty International are urging the Canadian government to take immediate action to protect migrant workers from systemic abuse. Without comprehensive changes, they argue, Canada risks maintaining a system that treats vulnerable workers as disposable labour rather than as human beings deserving of dignity and rights.

In response to the report, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), the department that oversees the TFWP said that "ensuring the health and safety of temporary foreign workers remains our key priority."

ESDC says it has "recently strengthened" rules on penalties for non-compliant employers. In the first six months of the 2024-25 fiscal year, it said the department issued $2.1 million in penalties, more than double the amount issued for the same period the year before, CBC reported.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said it is "continuously taking steps to strengthen its temporary foreign worker programs," including requiring employers to provide private health insurance and prohibiting charging recruitment fees to foreign workers. IRCC has a 24/7 tip line where people can report abuse of temporary foreign workers.

The Amnesty International report follows a July 2024 UN report, which condemned Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program as a "breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery."