Human Smuggling and Caregivers

Human Smuggling and Caregivers

After surviving weeks trapped in a 40-foot shipping container with other victims of human trafficking, people will be confined in Canadian detention facilities for a year without any review, if a proposed law passes. Bill C-49 will punish future victims of human smugglers, but right now, Canadian immigration practices already punish and deport caregivers who are victims of unscrupulous recruiters.

It was regular practice for officials from the Canadian Border Services Agency to deport caregivers who arrived in Canada only to find their employers were bogus. After paying thousands of dollars to recruitment agencies to arrange work, caregivers often discovered their work permits were invalid. Without legitimate work, these migrants face deportation.

“[A]t least 90 per cent of the women coming in as caregivers come in for bogus employers,” a border services source said in a Toronto Star article, “Nannies trapped in bogus jobs.” “This is clearly human trafficking,” the border services source said in the March 2009 article. Working illegally means exposure to exploitation.

Among all temporary residents in Canada in 2006, babysitters, nannies, and parent helpers made up the largest percentage of full-time workers, according to Statistics Canada. Filipinos make up the vast majority of workers in the federal Live-in Caregiver Program.

The Star’s source was anonymous and it is difficult to show whether changes to the national Live-in Caregiver Program that came into place on April 1, 2010 have improved the situation.

But a community worker who helps caregivers in Toronto said the situation remains the same. In an interview, Pura Velasco said there are still cases of deportation orders issued for temporary workers whose recruitment agencies set up bogus employers.

Velasco said she recently helped Ronnel Cabasunda appeal a deportation order, for example. Cabasunda worked in construction since discovering a job arranged by the Jinkholme recruitment agency was bogus. Cabasunda originally came to Canada to work as a caregiver. As of Dec. 20, he awaits a decision on his appeal to federal courts.

“The solution is to send the workers home so there’s no more complaint,” Velasco said. Citizenship and Immigration Canada “always wants to send the workers home instead of allowing the person to appeal or allowing RCMP or Canadian Border Services Agency to do an investigation,” she continued.

Deporting victims in these cases is especially problematic because enforcement of immigration laws is based on a complaint system. Recruitment agencies are not investigated until someone complains about them. But workers like Cabasunda may not be around long enough for recruiters’ punishment.

Nannies, Debie Mendez de la Fuente, Mary Grace Gallego and Joelina Maluto claim they were forcibly confined in their recruiters’ basement with more than a dozen other caregivers. At a press conference on Oct. 6, 2009, lawyers representing the women said they were ordered to cook and clean the recruiters’ house because they were told by Rakela and Zeev Spivak they could not work for the employers on their work permits.

The lawyers said this is “tantamount to human trafficking,” and also slammed Canada’s immigration policies for deporting the witnesses and victims of fraud.

In an interview with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney on September 3, he said caregivers who were “out of status” could face deportation if they are in Canada for an extended period of time without legitimate work. But since most people do try to seek other employment, he wasn’t prepared to send a clear message to stop this type of deportation.

This reasoning doesn’t hold for deportation cases such as Arnisito Gaviola, Antonio Laroya, and Ermie Zotomayor, who sought employment after changing jobs. Dubbed the three Amigos, the three fathers face deportation for working without a valid work permit. They worked in Alberta under a foreign work permit until the economic downturn, and then worked at gas station in Manitoba until June when they were arrested. The men paid thousands to a recruiter to arrange for proper jobs in Canada and sent money to their families in the Philippines from their earnings here.

The uproar over the proposed immigration law amending the Refugees Act is commendable. In an interview with Christopher Sorio, Secretary General of Migrante Canada, he said their organization stands in solidarity with people who oppose the Bill C-49 because it punishes victims and not the traffickers. He said it’s “counter-productive and doesn’t address the concerns of migrants.”

The Filipino advocacy group considers migration as a byproduct of the deteriorating economic and political situation in the Philippines. The government-implemented Labour Export Program supports the economy through overseas workers sending money back home. “But there is no protection from the government for migrants who have a problem, just like the Three Amigos,” Sorio said.

The Liberals slammed the bill in a statement released on Dec. 1 because it “victimizes the very asylum seekers the law should be protecting.” Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said, “irregular arrivals – including women and children – would be subject to mandatory detention for a year without review.” The other opposition parties voiced the same criticisms, and hopefully it will not pass.

Bill C-49 is an outrage, but it is not the first time Canadian immigration has sanctioned punishing the weak and vulnerable – immigrants who face dire consequences for others’ sins. Caregivers and other temporary workers to Canada have and are being punished for being victims of human smuggling and unfair immigration laws. Uproar loud enough to make this stop needs to blare out too.