Canada: Undocumented migrants may get permanent status soon as IRCC ministry engages with experts, stakeholders

Before the gathering marched to rally in front of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland’s downtown constituency office, a number of migrants, including farm and healthcare workers, recounted their tales.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, Ottawa started a regularisation programme for asylum seekers who worked in the medical field. Since then, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expressed interest in growing the programme.

In a mandate letter dated December 2021, the Trudeau government charged the minister of immigration and citizenship with developing current pilot programmes to further investigate the possibility of regularising status for undocumented workers who are contributing to Canadian communities.

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According to Syed Hussan, Ottawa should pay attention to his group’s requests for increased access to fundamental rights for persons living without documentation in Canada at this time.

“We have a historic opportunity right now to fix a wrong that has been going on for many, many years,” the Quesnel Cariboo Observer quoted the executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change as saying. “We want to make sure that parliament does not in any way delay.”

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The IRCC ministry is actively engaging with experts and stakeholders as part of its continuous efforts to fulfil the mandate commitment to regularise the status of undocumented employees, according to Aidan Strickland, the spokeswoman for Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Sean Fraser.

Future policy decisions, according to Strickland, will be based on the knowledge gained from current initiatives like the programme for asylum seekers employed in the medical field during the pandemic.