MIGRANTS WATCH
Filipino Caregivers Ask
Canadian Gov’t:
‘Stop Treating Us Like Slaves’
Canada bills itself as a
country that defends human rights. But many caregivers in this “land of
opportunity” do not believe so. They have sad stories to tell.
By Edwin C.
Mercurio
Bulatlat
|
TORONTO, Canada
– Canada bills itself as a country
that defends human rights. But many caregivers in this “land of
opportunity” do not believe so. Their doubts stem from their experience as
caregivers where according to them they have become victims of equality
and labor rights violations including sexual and physical abuse, workplace
harassment, exploitation, intimidation and even racial discrimination.
Filipina caregiver takes care
of triplets in Canada |
In mid-January this
year, caregivers grouped under the Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ)
will present policy recommendations to the Citizenship and Immigration of
Canada particularly on its Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). The policy
recommendations are based on various consultations conducted by CASJ with
LCP Filipino caregivers as well as other Filipino migrants, professionals
and trades people, workers and youths.
Introduced in 1992,
the LCP is a federal program that allows the recruitment of foreign
nationals to work in Canada as live-in caregivers. It is part of Canada’s
immigration policy that aims to fill the acute shortage of domestic
workers and to provide childcare alternatives for well-off Canadian
families. Under the LCP, a live-in caregiver provides childcare, senior
home support care or care of the disabled in a private household.
Data from the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) based in Manila shows
that the number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) going to Canada grew
by 13.3 percent to 4,006 in 2003 from 3,532 the previous year. Of these,
1,811 were Filipino caregivers, the second largest number in the world
after Taiwan.
Deployment
The CASJ noted that
more than 90,000 Filipino women have been deployed to Canada under the LCP,
which started in 1992, and its predecessor, the Foreign Domestic Movement
(FDM) program, that started in 1981.
Despite the influx of
OFWs, the Filipino community in Canada remains a minority comprising only
some 308,575 or 7.8 percent, of the more than 3.9 million minority
population of Canada.
In its various
consultations, the CASJ found that caregivers are restricted to the house
of their employers where they perform 24-hour duty. They are made to work
long hours, including weekends and holidays oftentimes without overtime
pay. They are also forced to accept grave-yard schedules and assigned in
types of work generally shunned by nationals.
Paid low wages,
caregivers have no medical, welfare and retirement benefits. This
situation, the alliance said, makes the caregivers vulnerable to more
abuse including rape.
Pregnancy and abortion
The CASJ also found
that Filipino nurses who enter the LCP as caregivers cannot leave the
program in order to practice their profession. There have also been
caregivers who are deported for supposed non-compliance to the two-year
employment requirement due to pregnancy. Those deported face permanent
separation from their Canadian-born children.
CASJ also documented
cases of forced abortion among caregivers to avoid deportation, as well as
suicide. The temporary immigration status of caregivers disqualifies them
from availing of insurance and disability benefits, medical assistance,
education, housing and other state welfare programs.
In a symposium held
in Toronto last Nov. 27, Cecilia Diocson, chair of the National Alliance
of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), said that the LCP’s two provisions
- the mandatory live-in requirement and temporary immigration status - are
“the seeds that bring forth numerous cases of abuse, exploitation and
human rights violations of the caregivers.”
Diocson also told
about abuse of women under the LCP including rape such as the Mustaji Case
and one woman raped by her employer on the day of arrival in Canada.
Long years of
separation from families also take its toll on the caregivers. Domestic
workers cannot bring their families to Canada. As a result, couples and
children are estranged from each other because of the extended separation.
“Canada must be
ashamed of its treatment of caregivers,” said Diocson. “This country touts
itself as a democratic country that respects and upholds human rights. But
look at what it is doing to its caregivers. It is an embarrassment for
Canada to continue with its Live-in Caregiver program. The mandatory
live-in requirement is Canada’s 20th Century modern-day slavery.”
Demands
As part of its
demands, the CASJ will ask Canadian authorities to remove the live-in
requirement of the LCP. It will also ask that caregivers be given
permanent residence just like other immigrants, and that they be allowed
to bring their families to Canada.
Caregivers should
enjoy the same rights accorded to other immigrants such as fair wages and
benefits, access to social services, right to protection from abuse and
health and safety in the workplace.
The Canadian
government should also sign the UN Convention on the Protection of the
Rights and Welfare of All Migrant Workers and Their Families, CASJ said.
Articles 10 and 11 of the UN Convention stipulate that no migrant worker
or member of his family shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment or be held in slavery or servitude or
required to perform forced or compulsory labor.
The CASJ will also
ask the Canadian government to establish a body that will monitor
compliance of the employment contract by employers and regulate the
operation of recruitment agencies. The monitoring body should have
prosecutorial powers, the alliance said.
Recently formed, the
CASJ is a non-partisan, political action and advocacy group that addresses
in particular social justice issues faced by vulnerable and marginalized
communities. With other reports / Bulatlat
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