Residency offered to asylum seekers in health care
Advocates call on Ottawa to extend move to other essential workers as well Marco Mendicino called front-line health workers “heroes.”
OTTAWA— The federal government is offering asylum claimants and their immediate families the chance to apply for permanent residency if they worked in direct health care during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino made the announcement Friday in Montreal, almost three months after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government was exploring ways to help asylum seekers who work in dangerous front-line health and longterm-care jobs during the pandemic.
Calling such workers “heroes,” Mendicino said such an extraordinary service to Canadians should be answered with an extraordinary, “one-time” pathway to permanent residency — even for those whose claims for asylum were previously rejected by Canada’s immigration process. This special pathway will be offered to eligible claimants, as well as to their spouses and dependent children, Mendicino said.
“What makes this group so unique and so special is the adversity that they had overcome just to get here,” he told the Star by phone on Friday.
“And despite the fact that they themselves were very vulnerable, (they) put themselves at a high risk to help others in their community,” he said. “Even though they don’t possess Canadian papers that give them permanent resident status or immigration status, they demonstrated a uniquely Canadian quality by looking out for one other.”
Mendicino said the government doesn’t know how many people will be eligible for this special program.
Refugee advocates have long pressured the government to accommodate asylum claimants who were called “guardian angels” by Quebec Premier François Legault for working in hospitals and long-term-care centres during the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 9,000 people in Canada this year. On Friday, the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers said it “applauds” the government for recognizing the “incredible task these workers have undertaken” to care for Canadians during the pandemic.
Others expressed disappointment, however, arguing the government should offer permanent residency to a broader range of asylum seekers and migrant workers in agriculture and other sectors.
As it stands, the offer is for people who claimed asylum before March 13 of this year, were issued a work permit, and worked at least 120 hours between March 13 and Aug. 14 in a “designated occupation.” Those include nurses, nurses aides, orderlies and assistant orderlies, patient service associates and “certain home-support workers,” according to Mendicino’s office.
Eligible asylum claimants must also have at least six months’ experience in one of these jobs before they become permanent residents.
“It’s saying there are people who are ‘essential’ and there are others that aren’t,” said Hady Anne, an asylum seeker from Mauritius who is a spokesperson for the group Solidarité Sans Frontières. It denounced the program for failing to include undocumented residents, agricultural workers, international students and refugees working as janitors and in other jobs in long-term-care centres.
“It’s a discriminatory measure that brings us backwards in the defence of human rights. I am really disappointed and it’s a real shame,” Anne told the Star in French. NDP MP Jenny Kwan echoed those concerns, stating Friday that it is “unfortunate” the government set an “arbitrary” eligibility date and made the special program available only to workers in the health sector.
“There are still many essential workers being left out,” Kwan said it a written statement. “The Liberal government cannot continue to ignore their plight or undervalue their important contributions in keeping Canadians safe.”
Temporary foreign workers employed on farms in Canada have died amid large outbreaks of the coronavirus on farms, including three workers at the Scotlynn Growers farming operation southwest of Toronto.
Mendicino said the emphasis of the special program was on “those who put themselves at greatest risk by working in hospitals, by working in retirement homes where COVID-19 was ravaging through like a wildfire.”
He didn’t rule out making it easier for migrant workers in agriculture, for instance, to apply for permanent residence in Canada, saying the government is “carefully examining that issue.” He also pointed out Ottawa has put millions of dollars towards improving safety for migrant workers during the pandemic.
“We will continue to maintain an open dialogue with the migrant workers’ community to be sure that we are providing them with the supports they need,” he said.