Workers Cheated, Sexually Exploited

Workers cheated, sexually exploited
Employers threaten deportation
Immigration officials admit to problem

Toronto Star: Aug. 15, 2005. 01:00 AM
By: Alejandro Bustos

Working without a legal safety net and fearful of being deported if they report abuse, undocumented workers are frequently cheated or even sexually exploited by unscrupulous employers, often right under the noses of people whose job is to prevent such mistreatment.

Several illegal workers, none of whom wanted their surnames published, described to the Toronto Star how they were robbed by employers:

Tomas and Norma, both from Mexico, were hired part-time to clean office buildings in Scarborough. When they asked for their first paycheque, their employer told them to get lost.

Enrique, also from Mexico, found a job in demolition soon after arriving here. After a week's work, he approached his boss for his pay, roughly $500. He was told he wouldn't get a dime and would be reported to Immigration if he complained.

Magdalena, a Cuban who arrived in Toronto in May, said she was the
victim of fraud.

"The (employment ad) asked for $39 to apply," Magdalena said, speaking in Spanish. Published in a local employment paper, the ad
promised work that could be done at home, sewing clothes and stuffing envelopes. After sending off the application and cash, Magdalena realized she had been had.

"They were supposed to send me a package of envelopes to stuff," she said.

"That's when I talked to another Cuban and she said, `Don't send
them any more money. It's a lie.'"

Unprincipled bosses can take advantage of one of society's most
vulnerable groups with impunity, according to Vilma Filici, president of the Canadian Hispanic Congress.

"It's a big problem," said Filici. "There is an incredible abuse of
people who are undocumented."

Based on interviews with immigration experts and workers, it seems
certain that at least two to three dozen are victimized each week in the GTA. The real figure may be much higher.

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`There is an incredible abuse of people who are undocumented'

Vilma Filici of the Canadian Hispanic Congress

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The stories the Star gathered don't surprise Carlos Morales, a Guatemala-born paralegal who arrived in Canada in 1982 and often works with undocumented immigrants. He recounts the story of a woman, an accountant in her home country, who was hired at a Mexican restaurant. The owner raped her repeatedly, while threatening to report her to Immigration if she called police. She finally fled Canada without reporting the abuse.

An electrical engineer from Mexico found a job at a lightbulb factory but lost the fingers of his right hand in an industrial accident. "Within a few weeks, the man returned to Mexico without a
cent," Morales said.

Asked about these stories, spokeswoman Belinda Sutton said the Ministry of Labour is not aware of specific allegations of abuse of
illegal workers.

But immigration officials do acknowledge the problem, saying they're trying to solve it.

"We want to protect people from abuse, validate their status and allow them to access regular wages and benefits," said Rejean Cantlon, a media relations officer for the immigration department. But there are anecdotal reports of possible abuse even inside government offices.

Consuelo Rubio, a community legal worker who works at the Centre for Spanish-Speaking Peoples, says she ran into two cleaners from Argentina in January 2004, when she was involved in late-night mediation talks at the Ontario Ministry of Labour's leased offices.

The women told her they hadn't been paid after several weeks' work.
They didn't know when they'd be paid or even how much the cleaning contractor owed them. They'd also been misled about their work hours.

"Though the words `illegal' or `undocumented' did not come up, the way they were describing their conditions ... indicated that they had no bargaining power," said Rubio.

Asked about the incident, the labour ministry's Sutton said the ministry didn't hire the cleaning staff; that was the landlord's responsibility. But she later said that, based on information provided by the Star, the ministry would launch an investigation into the incident.

The current landlord, who took over the building shortly after Rubio met the workers, said it has a policy of hiring contractors who treat staff fairly. But for less scrupulous employers, finding illegal workers is easy, as is their ability to disappear after they've cheated those workers, simply by dropping their cellphone numbers.

"Cellphones are the enemy of immigrants," said Everardo Monroy, a Mexican journalist now seeking political asylum in Canada. "A boss can get a cellphone number and then, once they have stolen from their workers, get rid of the number just as fast."