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The B.C. government is establishing a registry for migrant workers designed to protect them from exploitation by employers and recruiting agents.

“Temporary foreign workers are vulnerable to abuse in the workplace, and it can be difficult for them to get help,” said B.C. Labour Minister Harry Bains in an emailed response to criticism that B.C. lags behind other provinces in safeguarding migrant workers.

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The goal of the new program is to protect migrant workers from issues like underpayment, overwork, assault, sexual assault and trafficking.

Bain said in the email that the province planned to pass a law in “coming weeks” that would pave the way for the registry “to better support vulnerable foreign workers by tracking both the employers and the foreign worker recruiters.”

Currently, workers from Mexico and other countries are allowed to work in Canada for up to eight months a year under federal programs such as the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program.