Migrant Workers Seek Unpaid Wages As Their Immigration Status Becomes Precarious

During the year Rose* worked for a recruitment agency, her payments were irregular. Sometimes she was paid almost a month late, and the amount she received didn’t match the hours she worked. 

“How can one work and not have enough to eat? How can one work and be incapable of paying the rent or providing for one’s family?” said Rose, a former employee of the Agence de recrutement et de placement des employés IRIS. We agreed not to use Rose’s real name because her immigration status is in limbo.

Last year, the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST) filed multiple lawsuits against IRIS, seeking nearly $100,000 to recover unpaid wages for Rose and other former employees. 

All of them had closed work permits with the agency, which means their immigration situation was tied to their employer. If they quit or were fired, they would have had to return to their home countries.

Although some of the approximately 19 workers who are owed wages received Temporary Resident Permits (TRPs) more than a year ago — allowing them to pursue the long legal fight against the IRIS agency — those permits have expired, as they are only valid for one year. 

As a result, many workers were left in limbo.

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“We are doubly victimized. Firstly, by the IRIS Agency, and secondly by the immigration system, which keeps us in a precarious situation,” says Christian*, a former worker of the agency IRIS. 

At the end of January 2026, Rose, Christian and Lucie* — also a former worker of the agency — denounced at a press conference the inaction of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in granting them and their colleagues sufficient protection while they pursue the legal process against the agency to recover their unpaid salaries. We also aren’t using Christian’s real name because his immigration status is in limbo. In Lucie’s case, she has received death threats.

Even though the Immigrant Workers Centre (IWC) submitted new TRP applications on their behalf last year to allow them to remain in Canada, several have been denied. Today, as legal proceedings drag on, many continue to live with this uncertainty, exposing the gap between labour rights on paper and the reality faced by migrant workers who try to claim them.

These labour rights are further threatened by the fact that it is easier and faster to obtain a permit for a recruiting agency than to get a TPR for vulnerable workers. That’s according to Professor Mylène Coderre, senior researcher at the Institute for Research on Migration and Society (IRMS) at Concordia University. 

To apply for a recruitment agency permit, employers just need to fill out an online form, send proof of their financial capacity and provide other documents. Agencies can receive their permit within one or two months. 

In contrast, the TPR process is conducted exclusively by mail. Manuel Salamanca, community organizer at the IWC, says it takes him about 20 hours to prepare all the documents for just one application. Receiving a letter confirming the application — not the permit — takes approximately four to five months.

“If the workers want to secure their status for more than a year in Canada, they will have to go back to this closed work permit scheme,” Coderre said. “If they work in a low-skill job, there is no way they can transition to permanent residency, so they have to rely on a closed work permit again. It’s just a vicious circle.”

Debt and a nonexistent support network

Two years after waiting for a decision on the claims presented by the CNESST, former workers received the first payment of the total due, according to Salamanca. 

Nidufasha told The Rover that “the only mistake the CNESST made was believing that these individuals were not paid,” and stated that the 19 workers “were fully paid.” He said that the issue with the payments “arose from a technical problem related to ADP (the payroll system). During the period when ADP was not functioning, we paid them by direct bank deposit.”

In contrast, the workers believe the amount to be recovered could be even higher than $100,000, since the CNESST didn’t consider in its claim the illegal recruitment fees the recruitment agency charged them to apply for their closed work permits.

Employers are required to pay recruitment fees, which can include fees for using a third-party representative, advertising fees, and assistance or advice in hiring foreign nationals, among others. 

Coderre says it’s often difficult to prove that intermediaries or employers are charging foreign workers recruitment fees since they often offer “packages.” These could include work permit application fees, flight tickets, or fees for processing other immigration documents, as well as recruitment fees embedded in the total cost without the workers’ knowledge.

“They basically guarantee workers they are going to get the permit if they pay X amount of money,” explains Coderre.

Therefore, some workers apply for loans in their home country or invest a significant amount of money to come to Canada, often with the hope of obtaining permanent residency in the future. 

However, debt and a nonexistent support network in Canada leave them in a vulnerable position. 

“When you have that, there is no way you want to go back to your country. And so you will accept many things that, otherwise, if you were in your home country, you would not accept,” says Coderre.

In Lucie’s case, she was surveilled in the apartment she was living in Montreal. Her landlord reported to her boss, Dieudoné Nidufasha, every move she made and every visit she received. 

She came to Montreal in August 2025 with the promise of a stable job at IRIS under a closed work permit. Before coming to Canada, she checked that the agency was legally registered in Quebec and held a recruitment agency license from the CNESST. Everything seemed legitimate to her. 

In Montreal, Lucie’s support network was very limited. The only people she knew were Nidufasha — she says he was her boss, but he denies this — and a few friends. The first few days after arriving in Montreal, she stayed with her friends and then at an Airbnb. When the reservation ended, Lucie had nowhere to go, so she asked Nidufasha for help to find a place to live. 

“I trusted in him. What else can one do being all alone in a foreign country?” says Lucie.

Nidufasha took her to a place owned by an acquaintance of his — the woman who would later report to him everything Lucie did. 

After showing Lucie her new apartment, Nidufasha said he would bring a mattress for her. Then, with a smile that made her feel uncomfortable and afraid, he added that she would need to buy a double bed frame.

At the agency’s office, Lucie also felt uncomfortable. She says that while she was at the office, she was touched inappropriately and had her personal space invaded. 

One day, at an IRIS social event, she says that someone at IRIS sexually assaulted her. 

“I was frozen. I didn’t know what to do,” says Lucie.

A system that relies on workers to protect their rights

Many workers, like Christian, arrived in Canada on visitor visas and then applied for a work permit with the agency. As reported byThe Rover, multiple actors took advantage of a change in immigration policy in 2020 to fraudulently recruit migrant workers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a temporary policy was implemented to allow foreign nationals stuck in Canada after border closures to apply for a work permit.

Coderre explains that this policy exacerbated an existing problem. Even before the pandemic, intermediaries were deceiving foreign workers through offers of work permits. Workers believed they were complying with immigration laws, but upon arrival in Canada, they found they weren’t authorized to work. 

“One big recommendation to make is to take seriously how these intermediaries take part in the Canadian immigration system: employment agencies, recruitment agencies, immigration services, and companies. If we can really regulate those practices, I think we could achieve a lot of progress,” says Coderre.

In Christian’s case, he obtained a work permit in 2023 as a machine operator for the IRIS office in Montreal; however, he was sent to an elderly residence hours away from the metropolis to work as an orderly. Even though his closed work permit was tied to IRIS, he was “leased” to the residence, which is illegal and also put him at risk of deportation.

Nidufasha told The Rover that his agency didn’t lease its employees, but rather “delivered a service or acted as a subcontractor.” When referring to the foreign workers who had closed work permits tied to IRIS, he said that “the idea that these people were foreigners we brought here is not true. They are visitors who were recruited under the public policy introduced by the government to address the labour shortage.” He also stated that none of the workers “paid to be recruited.” 

The consequences for the workers go beyond the financial aspect. For Christian, the stress and anxiety he experienced while working for IRIS deteriorated his health to the point that he had to go to the hospital for an ulcer. For Lucie, who is the breadwinner of her family, the irregular payments — and even the lack of them — made it almost impossible for her to send money back home to provide for her kids. Although they were in the care of an extended family member, her youngest child is now under the custody of child protection services in her home country.

For Rose, the time she worked for IRIS felt like “living in prison while remaining free.” When she told Nidufasha she was filing a claim at the CNESST, he told her that, despite the claim, nothing would happen to him. 

“He feels like he’s not afraid of anything; he feels like he’s doing whatever he wants,” says Rose.

The workers are demanding regulation of private intermediaries, stronger protections for foreign workers against abusive employers, and the abolition of closed work permits. 

As Coderre explains, although there is consensus among government officials, companies, community organizations and workers about the issues surrounding closed work permits, there are no clear alternatives that meet the needs of both workers and employers.

“What is the solution? For workers’ organizations, it’s the open work permit, but for employers, they advocate for a regional work permit or a sectoral work permit,” Coderre said. “It’s not easy. This is why we don’t see a lot of progress on that side.”

In her eyes, what the federal and provincial governments can do better to protect foreign workers is to take proactive measures to ensure the effectiveness and implementation of existing regulations, such as unannounced inspections before workers arrive at their workplace, and ensuring that everything is in place for their integration, especially if they don’t speak French or English.

“Most workers’ protections are based on a complaint mechanism, so it relies on the capacity of the worker to advocate for their rights. And this system doesn’t work well with workers who are afraid of losing their jobs and fear being sent back to their home country,” says Coderre. 

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