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Gatica shared a story of a farm worker in Surrey who nearly had his finger cut off in a machine that peels and grinds carrots. His employer’s main concern was for the machine, said the farm worker, who was told to put on a glove and get back to work.

Photo by Mark van Manen / PNG

The report also includes quotes from a worker who said his employer sprayed pesticide while workers were out in the fields without providing them with safety gear, and another worker who recounted living in a small house with 40 other people.

“This is the way employers see migrant farm workers,” said Gatica. “These kind of situations happen every day in the fields.”

Migrant farm workers made up 28 per cent of temporary foreign workers in 2013, said report co-author and Simon Fraser University PhD student Alexandra Henao. In 2015, that figure has grown to 59 per cent.

Many workers hail from Mexico, Guatemala, the Caribbean and the Philippines. Vulnerable workers face geographical isolation at the farms, where there is usually poor access to transit.

Many do not speak English and are unfamiliar with the procedures and services in Canada. Some foreign workers who are tied by their work permits to one employer could be afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs or getting blacklisted by their governments and employers.

The report makes several recommendations to protect workers’ rights, including asking Canadian employers to hire multi-lingual employees and provide migrant workers with social and education services, such as a few hours of ESL courses per week, in order to “enable their participation in the communities.”

It also called on the federal government to allow workers to have family members visit them in Canada; give them the right to return home to their countries in case of family emergencies; and allow an “open work permit” so they can leave abusive employers for better ones.

chchan@postmedia.com

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