SIKLAB – B.C. (Advance and Uphold the Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers)
Philippine Women Centre of B.C.
Grassroots Women – B.C.
West Coast Domestic Workers’ Association

Advocacy groups and Member of Parliament call to stop ‘secret’ deportations of Filipino live-in caregivers and scrap Live-in Caregiver Program

July 9, 2009

 
VANCOUVER, B.C. – Advocacy groups and a Member of Parliament called for an end to the increasing number of ‘secret airport to airport deportations’ of Filipino live-in caregivers in a press conference today.
 
Members of advocacy groups the Philippine Women Centre and SIKLAB (Advance and Uphold the Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers) described the “nightmarish” experience of Ligaya Villacrusis, a nurse who arrived at the Vancouver airport from Dubai to work as a live-in caregiver last Saturday, July 4th only to be deported by Canada Border and Services Agency (CBSA) less than 48 hours later.
 
“Ligaya is a single mother with two kids in the Philippines who was very persistent to come to Canada with the hopes of working at a good job,” described Letty Malaggay, a member of SIKLAB and a friend of Villacrusis who helped process her application through Vancouver-based Paragon Personnel Agency. “At the airport they refused all her documents. She tried to plead with them saying, ‘I’m not a criminal, I’m just a victim. How can I go back to Dubai when I have no job and no money?’ but they would not listen,” said Malaggay.
 
Malaggay and Dinah Estigoy of the Philippine Women Centre described the arduous process Villacrusis went through to come to Canada. Villacrusis paid Paragon Personnel Agency approximately $4500 CDN to process her papers. She quit her job at a hospital in Dubai and left for Vancouver with all the required papers only to be informed upon her arrival at the airport by CBSA that her employer had backed out of her contract a month earlier. CBSA held her passport and instructed her to return the next day.
 
Villacrusis and her advocates returned on July 5 and argued for hours with CBSA, who eventually agreed that if she could bring a new employer back with her to the airport the next day she would be allowed to stay. Ms. Villacrusis did return on July 6 with a new employer who was willing to hire her. In spite of her compliance with CBSA’s instructions, Ms. Villacrusis was put on a flight back to Dubai that evening.
 
“It’s so sad and very terrible because all their promises were later changed,” said Malaggay. She described how Villacrusis told the CBSA officer that she would “rather die than go back to Dubai,” since she is the only breadwinner in her family and supporting two children in the Philippines.
 
“We denounce CBSA for inhumanely raising false hopes with this woman,” said Estigoy. “Unfortunately this story is becoming a common occurrence at our airports and borders today….This is just another reason why we call on Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to scrap the Live-in Caregiver Program and allow these women to come in as permanent residents,” she added.
 
The groups say the Canadian government is trying to cover up the secret deportations as Villacrusis was told three times by CBSA not to bring her story to the media.
 
“What is the policy motivation for removing these workers?” asked Deanna Okun-Nachoff, Executive Director of the West Coast Domestic Workers’ Association. “There is no question that there is a need for these workers in Canada, but they are not being protected. Once they have been removed from Canada they are unable to recover the thousands of dollars they have paid the agencies and cannot access any legal services,” she added.
 
Suzanne Baustad of Grassroots Women B.C. denounced the “shift in Canadian immigration policy from a focus on facilitating the entry of permanent residents to [a system] that is really geared to a cheap and disposable labour strategy.”
 
“We have fully-armed CBSA officers who have very little knowledge of immigration and refugee law, yet they wield…the power of life and death for many people at the border,” said Baustad.  She called for training for CBSA officers to better recognize and protect the rights of women and migrant workers and for Canada “to fulfill its obligations to protect victims of trafficking”. She reiterated Grassroots Women’s long-standing call to scrap the LCP.
 
“This is a horrific story and unfortunately not an isolated one,” said Libby Davies, Member of Parliament for Vancouver-East. “As Canadians we believe that we live in a just system, that when people come to Canada with a valid job visa they should be allowed to enter…. This case really exposes what is happening in Canada’s immigration system…that it is not working, that it is harmful and hurting people,” she said.
 
Davies said she would continue to raise her concerns in the House of Commons with the Ministers responsible for the LCP – Citizenship and Immigration Canada, CBSA and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.
 
The groups and Davies vowed to continue to work together in their organizing, advocacy and lobbying work with all levels of government to address the root causes of exploitation under the LCP and the unjust deportations of migrant workers.
 
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For more information, please contact Philippine Women Centre or Grassroots Women at ph: 604-682-4451 or email: pwc@kalayaancentre.net or grassrootswomen@telus.net

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