Three Amigos await word

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This article was published 25/04/2011 (5276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They made it through Christmas and can stay put past Easter but the foreign workers dubbed the Three Amigos might be getting the boot from Canada Tuesday.

That’s when the temporary workers — who haven’t been allowed to work since their arrest for illegally working at a gas bar in Thompson last summer — are to meet with the Canada Border Services Agency.

“We will ask again if they can give us time to wait for the (temporary resident permit) request to be processed,” said Diwa Marcelino, who’s been advocating for them.

The Three Amigos — Antonio Laroya, Arnisito Gaviola and Ermie Zotomayor — might, however, be told to get on a plane back home to the Philippines.

They could have bought more time in Canada if they had applied for a pre-removal risk assessment, Marcelino said. That assessment would look into whether they would be at risk if they were returned to their home country. The Philippines might be poor and lacking in health care and social services, but the family men wouldn’t claim their lives would be at risk if they have to return, he said.

“They didn’t want to use the system against the system,” Marcelino said.

“They’re going to continue with their request that the CBSA hold off on making them leave until their application for a temporary resident permit has been dealt with.”

The men worked in Alberta in low-paying jobs after paying thousands to a recruiter. When they were laid off before their work permits expired, they found new jobs in Thompson.

Their employer did not file the necessary paperwork as he promised, the workers said. The workers were arrested in June.

Their boss has been charged with hiring workers without work permits and misrepresentation.

In March, the Immigration and Refugee Board ruled at an admissibility hearing that the men were responsible for their own paperwork being in order and should be removed from Canada.

Groups that represent workers and employers in Manitoba say the Three Amigos aren’t solely responsible for their predicament.

“Organized labour sees that as being a failure of the system,” said Jeff Traeger, secretary-treasurer of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832.

“The rules of the game for these types of folks are not clearly communicated to them,” said Traeger.

“There are different rules in every province. I don’t think these three fellows thought they were breaking the law. They came to Canada to work.”

With unemployment near five per cent in Manitoba, employers have a hard time filling positions in some places, said Traeger.

He estimates there are 2,000 temporary foreign workers in southern Manitoba hog barns alone.

The president of the Manitoba Chambers of Commerce said he thinks the system, workers and employers need to be clearer about the rules.

“The system is complicated at the best of times,” said Graham Starmer, who said the trio and their boss have to take some responsibility as well.

“Sometimes workers need to do a bit of due diligence to safeguard their own interests,” he said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca