Migrant returns to Mexico

A Mexican migrant worker allegedly assaulted on an Abbotsford farm and stranded in Canada without a plane ticket and wages is safely home.

However, an advocacy group for migrants is worried he might not be allowed to return to work in Canada in retaliation for making complaints.

The 25-year-old worker alleges he was pushed, grabbed, and had a knife waved at him last Saturday morning while working at the Kayra Farm on No. 2 Road.

In Canada under the auspices of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), the farm labourer didn’t want to be named because he feared being labelled a troublemaker.

“Workers worry when they complain that they will be punished by not being able to come back next season,” said Lucy Luna of the Migrant Workers Support Centre in Abbotsford.

That’s what I’m worried about for him, and all other workers.”

She said the centre will monitor whether the worker remains in the seasonal agricultural program - a joint venture between the Canadian and Mexican government.

The worker was picked up in Chilliwack at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, and transported to the Mexican Consulate, then taken to the Vancouver International Airport for his flight at 12:30 a.m. to Mexico City.

Luna who heard from the worker Saturday afternoon, who said he has arrived safe in his home province in Mexico.

She is glad he is home, but he shouldn’t have had to wait so long for his ticket, Luna said. Under a SAWP contract, employers are obliged to provide a return plane ticket for their workers, regardless of an early termination of a contract.

Nor can a worker be transferred to another employer without the worker’s consent, and written approval from the Ministry of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC). The Mexican labourer was originally contracted to the Gurmukh Badyal Farm No. 2 Road, but was lent to the adjacent Kayra farm in violation of his contract, said Luna.

Gurdip Khaira, co-owner of Kayra Farm, said the incident was a misunderstanding, fuelled in part by a language barriers.

He said his father Tejinder was working with and supervising three Mexican migrant workers while weeding a field.

Khaira said his father noticed the worker was missing some weeds, and called out for him to come back down the rows.

When the worker didn’t respond, his Punjabi-speaking father took hold of the labourer’s arm to show him where he wanted him to go.

“When a guy doesn’t speak a language you have to use sign language,” Khaira said.

He said his dad wasn’t waving a knife at the worker, but was showing him how to use an Indian hand tool used to cut and dig out weeds.

Khaira said his dad may have been a little upset.

“You want workers to do a good job,” said Khaira. “We don’t want to be rude with them, but we’re not millionaires. We’re not sitting in a chair giving orders. We work too, and if we can do it so can they.”

Khaira said he only used the migrant workers contracted to the Gurmukh Badyal Farm when working a joint crop of Brussell sprouts.

“We’re two separate farms, but we share that crop. One guy can’t afford it, so we split the cost and profit.”

Khaira said he brought in a friend who spoke Spanish to try to work out the conflict. He thought it was resolved, but he said the worker disappeared the next day, and they didn’t know where he was.

The only information the farm got were calls from the Mexican Consulate telling them to buy the worker a ticket home.

Luna said misunderstandings between employers and workers who don’t speak a common language can happen, but it doesn’t justify physical contact.

“Workers should never be touched, not even with one finger,” said Luna.

“There’s no misuderstanding about pushing, yelling or physical contact.”

LUCY LUNA
By ROCHELLE BAKER
Aug 28 2007

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*QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Do you think that migrant workers should receive protection under the law from the country where they are temporarily working?

Do you think that migrant workers should have a basic, working knowledge of the language in the country where they are working?

Why do farms hire migrant workers from other countries instead of people from their own country?
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