‘No escape’: Foreign worker says he faced labour exploitation in B.C.

Human trafficking is a global crisis – and it doesn’t only involve the sex trade.

• Part of the series Hidden in plain sight: Human trafficking and the B.C. connection

Miguel Alvarez is building a new life in Canada.

But for a long time, he felt trapped and exploited here.

“I feel I have no way, no escape, nothing. You feel like inside a cage,” he said.

Alvarez said in 2022, while living in Mexico with his family, he responded to an online ad in Vancouver looking for someone with carpentry skills.

“I ask, ‘Do you have that work permit?’ (The employer) said, yeah, I have that work permit, but I just can’t give you (it)… because it’s too expensive and too hard for me to get it,” Alvarez recalled.

Alvarez said the employer told him to come to B.C. on a tourist visa, promising that, “If you can use the tools, for sure I give you the work permit.”

Hoping to prosper, Alvarez moved his family to the Lower Mainland.

But he says the job wasn’t what he expected. Over the next couple years, Alvarez alleges he faced multiple abuses. He claims those included being paid less than minimum wage, not being paid properly for overtime, and being expected to work long hours at his construction job and his boss’ blueberry farm.

For more than a year, he was paid only in cash, he said.

Alvarez also said whenever he asked about not having received the promised temporary work permit, even months after arriving here, his boss threatened him with deportation.

He recalled his employer telling him: “You want to go back Mexico? I can call. One call, I can cancel your permit and you go back.”

Alvarez claimed he was pressured to move onto his employer’s farm, at one point living a few weeks in a converted shipping container with his family where there was no bathroom. The bathroom was in a different building they would walk to.

He also said that without permission, his employer deducted from his wages for rent and legal fees, allegedly telling Alvarez he owed thousands for the work permit.

“I have no more money in my pockets. All my savings gone. So how can I give food to my family?” he recalled of that time period.

Desperate, he said he found himself having to borrow from his employer, who later hired Alvarez’s wife and children to work for him picking blueberries. Alvarez said his son was just 11 at the time.

“I feel this is no better life. I made a big mistake,” Alvarez said.

His daughter, Stacy Alvarez, also recalled what a difficult period it was for the family.

“No escape. I couldn’t even help them because I have no permit or I couldn’t even go to school,” she said.

A lawyer for the employer told CTV News it would not be appropriate to comment as the case is still in the middle of a legal process.

The matter is being investigated by the provincial Employment Standards Branch.

However, a review of a federal government website does not list the employer in question as being non-compliant with the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Alvarez sought help through the Dignidad Migrante Society, which helps migrant workers.

Raul Gatica, the society’s assistant to the workers’ board of directors, said he often sees cases of labour trafficking.

“It’s so big. The labour trafficking in Canada is so big,” he said.

He said labour trafficking often ensnares migrant workers. At least 200 people a year seek help from his organization because of this.

“The Canadians, they don’t believe it. They say, ‘Oh, that couldn’t happen in Canada. It’s not possible to happen in Canada,’ but it happens in Canada,” he said, explaining that some cases of exploitation are more severe than others.

He said some people “live in terrible housing conditions – 20, 40, 60 people in a house with one bathroom,” Gatica explained.

He also said some migrant workers have faced sexual or physical abuse.

“We have a case where a guy was punctured by an employee (with) a knife,” he said.

Gatica also said that some employers have implemented curfews for workers.

“After 8 p.m., you are not able to go out. After 8 p.m. you go out, you will be punished, and will be sent back to your country,” he said of one complaint he heard.

“The government has been failing to protect the workers,” said Gatica.

As for Alvarez, he said he is now employed under a permit for vulnerable workers and is hopeful he’s moving toward a better future for himself and his family.

This project was made possible with funding provided by the Lieutenant Governor’s B.C. Journalism Fellowship, in partnership with Government House Foundation and the Jack Webster Foundation.