By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

A total of 43 indentured Mexican workers who were brought to Canada by human traffickers last year were rescued by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), OPP officials announced on Monday, Feb. 11.

The Mexicans, mostly men between the ages of 20 and 45, had been forced to work as cleaning staff at various hotels in central and eastern Ontario and to live in squalid conditions as they “paid off” the persons who had arranged for their transfer to Canada, under the pretext that they would be granted study and working visas.

An OPP spokesman said that the Mexicans, who will now be given work visas and allowed to remain in the country, had been trapped in situation of “modern-day slavery.”

The Mexicans were rescued during a raid of the place where they were being kept on Tuesday, Feb. 5, the OPP spokesman said.

No arrests have yet been made of the alleged human traffickers.