New report raises concerns over labour exploitation of migrant workers during pandemic

A new report looking at the impact the pandemic had on the exploitation of migrant workers in Canada is raising concerns about an increase in labour trafficking.

A new report looking at the impact the pandemic had on the exploitation of migrant workers in Canada is raising concerns about an increase in labour trafficking.

The groups involved in the report say a major labour shortage, coupled with the status of temporary foreign workers, is leading to more situations of migrant workers being taken advantage of.

The report, “It Happens Here: Labour Exploitation Among Migrant Workers During the Pandemic,” is a joint project by the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, FCJ Refugee Centre and Legal Assistance Windsor.

The report is the result of several focus groups held in Toronto, London, Leamington and the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas in 2022, with 77 migrant workers from across different sectors in Ontario sharing their pandemic experiences.

“If you understand it as a spectrum of exploitation and discrimination, labour trafficking is considered legally to be the very far and most extreme end of exploitation, but it often doesn’t happen overnight, and so we really like to think about this as prevention and be an early exit,” said Julia Drydyk, executive director of the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking.

“We look at the entire continuum of exploitation, and hopefully, that means that someone who is a migrant worker can access support before it gets to that very extreme level.”

Drydyk told Global News this report is the second time they spoke to migrant workers about their experiences in Canada, which allowed them to compare conditions before the COVID-19 pandemic and after its peak.

She said the current information about labour trafficking is “just the tip of the iceberg.”