Latest news with #labourtrafficking
CTV News
15-07-2025
- CTV News
Charges stayed against alleged human traffickers of workers from Mexico
Four people, including a man and woman from the Alliston area, accused of labour trafficking had their charges stayed in a Brampton, Ont. courtroom. Floriberta Sarmiento, 29, and Francisco Antonio-Olvera, 35, along with a man in his 70s from Etobicoke and a Halton, Ont. man in his 50s, were charged following the provincial human trafficking investigation Project Foxtrot in 2023. The accused were alleged to have trafficked workers from Mexico. Investigators said the accused exploited the workers, who were between 27 and 42 years of age and promised work visas and good-paying jobs only to be lied to and forced to work in recycling plants in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta. Sarmiento and Antonio-Olvera were accused of luring three men with passports from Mexico to work for them and others. The workers said they lived in a cold basement with no running water and slept on an air mattress they had buy for themselves, while paying rent which was taken from their pay cheques. The workers told investigators they feared they could not leave and were coerced to stay. '[They were] brought to Canada with the idea that they would have proper accommodations, as well as proper salary - a living wage, so to speak - and that did not come to fruition for them,' said former Det. Insp. Jordan Whitesell of the Ontario Provincial Police. Investigators believed the men were transported across Canada from Sault Ste. Marie to North Bay as well as Quebec and Red Deer, Alberta, and were hired through a subcontractor to work in places such as recycling facilities which investigators said were not aware they were employing victims of alleged human trafficking. Records from the Ministry of Labour also show Olvera was fined $355 for failing to produce records or provide assistance. The OPP did not respond to requests for comment and directed any inquiries to the Ministry of the Attorney General. A staying of charges by the Crown means the prosecution has one year to resume its case.
CTV News
11-07-2025
- CTV News
Father and son facing human labour trafficking charges
Father and son facing human labour trafficking charges A father and son from Edmonton are facing charges of human labour trafficking connected to a business they owned outside the city.
CTV News
26-06-2025
- CTV News
Manitoba RCMP to announce arrests in labour trafficking investigation
An RCMP epaulette is seen in Edmonton, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson The Manitoba RCMP is set to make an announcement regarding a labour trafficking investigation on Thursday afternoon. According to police, the investigation resulted in the arrest of two people in Portage la Prairie, Man. Sgt. Cathy Farrell with the RCMP, Janet Campbell with the Joy Smith Foundation and Dianna Bussey with The Salvation Army will be speaking at the news conference, scheduled for 1 p.m. at the RCMP Headquarters. CTV News will provide more information as it becomes available.
South China Morning Post
15-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Malaysia, Bangladesh urged to act on labour trafficking before ending migrant worker freeze
Rampant labour trafficking that left tens of thousands of Bangladeshis stranded without jobs in Malaysia must be addressed first before signing any deal to end a year-long freeze on entry for a fresh cohort of migrant workers, activist groups have warned. Bangladesh , one of Asia's poorest nations, sent as many as 450,000 people to work in the Southeast Asian country between 2021 and 2023, according to labour authorities in Dhaka, most staffing low-paid jobs on building sites, farms and restaurants. But Malaysia imposed a freeze on new migrant hiring on May 31 last year, after a labour scam was uncovered, revealing Bangladeshi workers had been duped into paying up to US$5,000 to syndicates operating in both countries for jobs that did not exist. That left many stranded in Malaysia, forced to overstay illegally, deep in debt and easy targets for exploitation in the country's notorious black market for labour. The labour scandal was so serious that UN experts stepped in to urge prosecution of the syndicates and 'certain high-level officials' in both governments, who had allowed the scam to unfold, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in fees. Migrant workers from Bangladesh working in a timber and furniture factory in Malaysia. Photo: Shutterstock Bangladeshi officials were due to meet with Malaysia's Interior Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and Human Resources Minister Steven Sim in Malaysia's administrative capital of Putrajaya on Thursday in an effort to reopen the job market, according to a Bloomberg report.
