Lack of vaccine access, cramped living lead to rise in COVID-19 outbreaks among migrant workers in Quebec

Quebec has largely succeeded in taming the third wave of COVID-19, but outbreaks persist among temporary foreign workers, who are forced to work in cramped settings and have had difficulty accessing vaccines

Temporary foreign workers are now being offeredCOVID-19 vaccineswhen they arrive at theMontreal-Trudeau International Airport.

Still, advocates saythe Quebec government hasn't done enough to prevent transmissionamong vulnerable workers at the farms, factories and meatpacking plants that have kept the province's economy going for over a year.

They welcome the airport vaccination plan but say it's unfortunate it took months to organize. Thebulk of temporary foreign workers working in Quebec's agricultural sector arrived in March and April.

"It's too bad because if this had happened sooner, a lot more people would have been vaccinated," saidMichel Pilon, the co-ordinator of theRseau d'aide aux travailleuses et travailleurs migrants agricoles du Qubec (RATTMAQ), a group that helps migrant workers in agriculture.

Advocates like Pilon have decried the cramped living spaces and workplaces that make it easy for the virus to spread.

The first flight of workers from Guatemala to receive the vaccines as part of the initiative arrived Tuesday.

Of the 180 workers on the chartered flight, 95 per cent took the offered dose, according to Pilon. At least500 more workers are expected to arrive by Friday, he added.

Health boards said no to mobile clinics

Many work long hours in areas far from mass vaccination centres. Pilon said he and other groups advocating for migrant workers repeatedly asked for mobile vaccination to be offered at workplacesbutregional health boards decided against it.

This week, Quebec's public health institute, the INSPQ, reported a rise in workplace outbreaks among temporary foreign workers. Currently, there are 86temporary foreign workers in six regions who are sick, compared to 21on May 22.

On Monday, a Radio-Canada investigation revealed substandardliving conditions for workersat Tomates Demers, a tomato farm in Drummondville.

Thick mould covers walls in some of the rooms and bathrooms and the living spaces are so tightly packed, several workers must sleep in bunk beds.

"We're living one on top of the other," one worker told Radio-Canada.

Quebec Premier Franois Legaulthas decried the conditions, calling them "unacceptable," but said Tuesday it was up to the federal government to enforce or improve regulations overseeing temporary foreign worker programs.

Nolle Didierjean, a spokesperson for the Immigrant Workers Centre based in Montreal, saidthe Quebec government should have done more to ensure workers' safety during the pandemic.

"There weren't pop-up clinics and workers weren't offered compensation for getting the vaccine, and weren't able to take time for the side effects," Didierjean said.

"Sure, they're getting vaccinated and that's great, but they're still living in hyper crowded spaces where it's impossible to socially distance."

Living conditions worse during pandemic

Pilon said many agricultural employers have used pandemic restrictions as an excuse to take more control over workers' movements, in some cases forbidding them from leaving the property on their day off.

"Demers is far from being an isolated case," Pilon said, adding an increasing number of workers are forced to work seven days a week, despite Quebec's labour law stipulating that a person must have at least 32 consecutive hours of rest per week.

"I've seen paychecks with 80, 92up to 104 hours in a week," Pilon said. "It is unacceptable. We are burning these people out."

Pilon and others members of RATTMAQinstalled a boothat the Trudeau airport last March, at the beginning of the pandemic, to inform temporary foreign workers of their rights.

Quebec is relying more on labour from temporary foreign workers than in the past. A total of 20,000 are expected to arrive in 2021, 16,000 of whomwill work in agriculture. Most of the workerscomefrom Mexico and Guatemala. Those numbers have doubled since 2015.

Most of those workers are housed by their employers. Neither the Quebec nor Canadian government sets a limit on the number of workers who can live in one room. The INSPQhas asked that there be at least nine square meters of space per two people in a room.

The minimum amount of space between beds imposed by the federal government is 45 centimetres. There must be one toilet and one shower for every 10 workers and one fridge for every six workers, according to federal law.

Fernando Borja, the director of FERME,an organization that helps farms in Quebec hire foreign workers, saidpolls conducted by the Mexican government found most workers were satisfied with their living conditions in the province.

He believes the provincial government's testing and quarantining protocol in place for when workers arrive has been effective. Workers are obliged to show proof of a negative test conducted shortly before their departure, as well as receive another COVID-19 test once they arrive at the airport and a third, eight days into their isolation.

More than one worker can isolate in one room.

"I think it helps a lot," Borja said. "My understanding is that very few are positive upon arrival."

"We still have a lot of workers coming in the month of June, so we're happy to see the vaccination getting done."