The number of open work permits issued to vulnerable migrant workers facing abuse by Canadian employers has surged in the last five years, a concerning development that points to rampant abuse in the federal temporary foreign worker program, experts say.
In a bid to address abuse in the federal program, the government introduced the open work permits for vulnerable workers program in 2019, which allows temporary foreign workers experiencing or at risk of abuse to apply for a new permit and leave their employer.
According to data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) the number of approved open work permits for vulnerable workers jumped from 240 out of 567 applications in 2019 to 2,060 out of 3,930 applications received in 2023.
This year, from January to July alone, the number of work permits has increased to 2,395 out of 3,121 applications and is expected to increase by the end of the year, according to immigration lawyers and consultants.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Amanda Aziz, a staff lawyer at the Migrant Workers Centre who helps migrant workers apply for open work permits. “We anticipate that numbers will continue to increase.”
Since the work permit’s launch, a total of 7,258 open work permits have been issued, a stark indicator of the challenges faced by Canada’s migrant labour force, according to the experts.
“Even the number of applications received doubled from 2022 to 2023 — this is really concerning,” said immigration consultant Kanwar Sierah who also represents migrant workers applying to the vulnerable worker program.
Critics have long condemned Canada’s temporary foreign worker program which ties migrant workers to a single employer, making it difficult for them to speak out against abuse which could cost them their job and therefore their legal status in the country.
While the demand for temporary foreign workers to fill unprecedented labour shortages has surged, a Star investigation revealed Tuesday that the federal government has been instructing processing officers to use “streamlining measures” when assessing employers’ applications to hire temporary foreign workers.
This has led to skipping crucial steps meant to prevent fraud — including verifying that lawyers and consultants applying on behalf of employers are in good standing with their regulator — putting migrant workers at even greater risk of exploitation.
This abuse and increase in open work permit applications, Sierah said, “has everything to do with the increase of the temporary workers without checking the employer’s background.”
Both Sierah and Aziz said they’ve seen a significant rise in the number of migrant workers approaching them to apply for permits on a regular basis.
Aziz said she and other staff used to mainly help workers with “recurring applications” like work permit renewals and permanent resident applications but “now we primarily have workers with these (open work permit) applications.”
Aziz noted that the recent surge in applications is also partly due to more workers becoming aware of the vulnerable worker program and gaining access to “more supports to help them apply for these work permits.”
“We’ve always known there is rampant abuse in the temporary foreign worker program — the initial low numbers of permit applications were just indicative of a new program that was very inaccessible,” she said.
Aziz and Sierah said the workers they represent have faced a wide range of abuse including sexual assault, psychological abuse and wage theft.
To hire a temporary foreign worker, an employer must first submit a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) demonstrating there is a need for a foreign worker to fill a position for which no Canadian citizen or permanent resident is available. The cost of the application is $1,000 and must be borne by the employer. It is illegal to charge workers for an LMIA.
Often migrant workers have been asked to pay tens of thousands of dollars in illegal recruitment fees, or have their salaries deducted to repay the employer for the temporary foreign worker application, according to Aziz.
Employers can create fake job openings or partner with consultants to get LMIAs approved, which are then sold to foreign workers for tens of thousands of dollars, often with the worker unaware that selling LMIAs is an illegal practice. Many migrant workers come to Canada only to find their job does not exist, Sierah said.
When asked why there has been such an increase in permit applications, IRCC in an email said, “due to privacy legislation, we cannot comment on individual cases.”
“Everyone deserves a safe workplace where their rights are respected. We take the safety and dignity of foreign workers seriously,” IRCC said, adding that the government is working on increasing awareness of migrant workers’ rights among employers and employees and providing a 24-hour confidential tip line for workers “to report abuse without reprisal.”
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced changes to the temporary foreign worker program he said were designed to reduce the number of low-wage foreign workers business can hire and prompt companies to hire more Canadian residents.
Critics argue that the new measures don’t go far enough to protect temporary migrant workers, who can’t leave their jobs without jeopardizing their status in Canada.
“The most common threat we hear is employers telling workers they’ll get them deported,” Sierah said, noting that workers often endure abusive conditions to stay in the country.
Earlier this month, the UN’s special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery emphasized that granting migrant workers permanent resident status is key to ending ongoing exploitation.
Aziz agrees.
“Temporary status and being tied to employers are what create precarity… and the lack of pathways to permanent residency,” she said.
