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SIKLAB - Canada
Press Release
Filipino live-in caregiver faces deportation; Migrant worker advocacy
group protest deportations as ‘unjust
For immediate release: March 28, 2006
A Filipino live-in caregiver is being threatened with deportation from
Canada but has done nothing wrong, according to a national organization
of Filipino migrant workers.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has told, Emelda Emnace, a
40-year old Filipina live-in caregiver, to leave Canada by April 2, 2006
or risk never being able to return to Canada again.
"Although only being in Canada for less than two years, Emnace was
victim to the bureaucratic hurdles and lack of information many live-in
caregivers face," says Glecy Duran, Vice-Chairperson of SIKLAB - Canada
(whose name in Tagalog means "Flameburst" and whose acronym stands for:
Advance and Uphold the Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers).
Emnace arrived in Canada in May 2004 and worked for one year as a
live-in caregiver taking care of two small children for a Vancouver
family. After the family no longer needed her, she actively sought and
secured other employment but due to processing delays, was not re-issued
a valid working permit and lost her temporary status.
Live-in caregivers under CIC's Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) are
required to hold a valid working permit issued from CIC which is good
for one year and tie the live-in caregivers to working for only one
employer. According to SIKLAB however, because of a variety of reasons
many live-in caregivers are unable to complete the required 24 months of
live-in work within three years and are ordered deported from Canada.
In Emnace's case she has yet to reach the three year limit, is more than
willing to work but without a permit cannot work legally.
Emnace is a single mother of two daughters aged 16 and 11 from Cebu
island in the Philippines
Duran says Emnace's case is common amongst Filipino live-in caregivers
who are forced to migrate to Canada because of widespread poverty and
political unrest in the Philippines. Since the early 1980s, nearly
100,000 Filipino live-in caregivers have come to Canada under the LCP
and its predecessor the Foreign Domestic Movement (FDM).
A review of the LCP was initiated by CIC in January 2005 and because of
the demands of community organizations then CIC Minister Joe Volpe was
quoted in a media interview saying the LCP may require a complete
overhaul. Since then however, no changes have been made.
In April of 2005, SIKLAB launched a petition campaign to the Minister of
Immigration to place a moratorium on the unjust deportation of live-in
caregivers. In January of this year they also held a national day of
protest with rallies in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver to protest the
unjust deportations. CIC has yet to respond to SIKLAB’s campaign.
SIKLAB and the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
have been calling for the scrapping of the controversial LCP program
because of its dehumanizing impact many women under the program face.
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For more information or to arrange an interview, please call:
VANCOUVER: Glecy Duran, SIKLAB Vice-Chairperson (Western Canada) at:
604-215-1103 or e-mail: siklab@kalayaancentre.net
TORONTO: Yolyn Valenzuela, SIKLAB Vice-Chairperson (Eastern Canada) at:
416-878-8772 or siklab_ontario@yahoo.ca
MONTREAL: Roderick Carreon, SIKLAB Chairperson at: 514-344-2709 |
