Forced Labour Happens in Canada: precarious migrants call for justice and protection
To participate in the webinar on Forced Labour Happens in Canada (public education event, open to the media), please register here (free of charge).
Through fraud, coercion, deception and exploitation, migrants in Canada may find themselves in situations of forced labour, a form of human trafficking. Yet, existing remedies fall short of providing protection or justice.
The Temporary Resident Permit for Victims of Human Trafficking (VTIP-TRP) is the only available federal tool for protection of internationally trafficked persons in Canada. However, TRPs are issued at the discretion of the immigration officer, inconsistently, and in different ways across regions.
Trafficked persons who fail to get TRPs are left in limbo, without protection. The current pandemic crisis only amplifies their precarity.
Front-line workers and human rights advocates are calling for the federal government to:
- Make VTIP-TRPs accessible to trafficked persons in a way that reflects how people are coerced and exploited in Canada. This grounded understanding of international trafficking in Canada needs to be consistently applied across all provinces.
- Collaborate with front-line workers who have expert understanding of how recruitment, deception, fraud, coercion are means to exploit people in Canada.
- Seize this unprecedented opportunity to put human rights and social justice at the centre of immigration policies and programs as reflected in our long-term policy demands.
This public education event will be open to the media.
With Shelley Gilbert, Legal Assistance of Windsor, Sue Wilson, Sisters of St. Joseph Canada, Natalie Drolet, Migrant Workers Centre, Leah Woolner, Mouvement contre le viol et l'inceste, and migrant workers with lived experience.
All are welcome to participate to find out what human trafficking looks like in Canada and how to take action.
To participate in the webinar on Forced Labour Happens in Canada (press conference and public education event), please register here (free of charge).