Recruiters take advantage of legal labor mobility schemes that exist between Mexico and Canada to hook victims.
Mexican migrants denounced this Sunday networks of alleged recruiters who hook them with the illusion of obtaining work in Canada and then turn them into “modern slaves”, since they exploit them and have them overcrowded in homes that they share with up to 15 people.
“Everything is a fraud: they charge you 600 Canadian dollars (441 US dollars) a month for rent and demand another 5,000 dollars on the grounds that they are processing your refuge in Canada,” Kevin, a Mexican who was deported today from Ottawa to Cancun.
The undocumented immigrant recalled that he borrowed money from his relatives to travel to Canada, deceived by these alleged recruiters, with the hope of obtaining work and earning dollars.
Everything is a lie, please don’t be fooled, they will only take you to Canada to exploit you, to turn you into slaves in the 21st century.
Recruiters take advantage of legal labor mobility schemes that exist between Mexico and Canada to hook victims.
The work programs offered, under Canadian labor laws, are provincial, not federal, and hourly pay varies.
For example, in Ontario, the pay is $15.83 per hour, which will go up next October, and $15.35 per hour in British Columbia.
Before Kevin’s deportation, Canadian authorities in Mexico who did not want to identify themselves warned him not to fall into this type of fraud and abuse: “We offer, like many countries, including Mexico, Complementary Protection for Foreigners or Refuge/asylum, but in specific and special cases.
The trap that Mexicans fall into is the illusion of the Canadian dream that is promoted through social networks, since they ensure that the Government of that country has a high demand for labor and programs that facilitate entry.
However, many of them are cases of fraud.
Recruitment networks deceive us, they take us to Canada, but they only exploit us, they make us slaves using sophisticated smuggling and human trafficking operations.
Subhuman conditions
Canadian sources reported that in recent months they rescued migrants who were working in subhuman conditions.
“Mexicans lived overcrowded, paying a lot of money for rent, food and other services,” they reported that a few weeks ago four inhabitants of Yucatan, in southern Mexico, were deported.
The most recent case reported by the York Regional Police, a community north of Toronto, was the rescue of 64 Mexicans from an international trafficking network.
“The victims lived in poverty and were forced to work long hours for little pay, while their exploiters benefited and lived in luxury,” the report says.
Another of the rescued immigrants revealed that an acquaintance from his town in Mexico “offered me a job in Canada in exchange for a payment of 70,000 pesos (3,900 US dollars) that included the plane ticket and the supposed work visa,” which in reality is the Government of Canada’s Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA).
“I fell for the trap, the recruiter did not have my work visa, he only provided me with a phone number and the name of a “contact” in Canada,” he said.
The “contact” took him to a house and informed the immigrant that he would pay $600 a month for a room in the house where more than 15 people lived sharing a bathroom and kitchen.
Then, they took him to a lawyer who was supposed to handle his “refugee” case to obtain a work permit, “but since he didn’t have $5,000, they abandoned me.”
Today in Mexico, he sadly admitted that he had a terrible time, “because the work was heavy, poorly paid and not constant, I lived in worse conditions than at home in Mexico.”
Source: Aristegui Noticias
