Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 3rd, 2017

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Good afternoon. This is meeting 55 of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), and the motion adopted by the committee on October 4, 2016, the committee will resume its study on immigration consultants.

We have one witness who is not here yet. We're going to proceed, and hopefully he will join us soon.

Each of the witnesses will have up to seven minutes to make a presentation to the committee.

We have Leslie Emory from the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, who is a board director. We also have Maria Esel Panlaqui from Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office of Toronto. Maria is a settlement worker. We also have Michelle Marie Dulanas.

Good afternoon to all of you. We will start with Ms. Emory for seven minutes please.

[Leslie Emory, Board Director, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants]

Thank you.

The Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants is the umbrella organization for immigrant-serving agencies in Ontario. We have more than 200 member agencies working with immigrants and refugees, refugee claimants, migrant workers, international students, and those without full immigration status. We thank the standing committee for the opportunity to comment on this important study.

We'd like to raise four key concerns. First, in our estimation, our immigration and refugee system is complex and unfamiliar to most residents. Clients aren't aware if their applications have been completed correctly or submitted properly. Many rely on word-of-mouth referrals or advertisements in community publications, and at ethno-specific businesses.

Second, lack of language proficiency renders the immigration system inaccessible. Many clients do not speak either official language sufficiently to navigate the system on their own. They rely on others to complete the application, and to understand and respond to communication they receive from the government. Importantly, they are unable to determine if the service they receive from a consultant is legitimate. Clients who speak French, and who approach an English-speaking consultant for services, are not informed of their right to access government services in French.

Third, residents with precarious immigration status are more vulnerable to being taken advantage of by unscrupulous consultants. We are aware of migrant workers who have lost their temporary status when an application for work permit renewal wasn't properly completed or submitted. Clients with limited options to gain legal residence are among the most desperate, and likely to pay thousands of dollars to consultants for false promises of permanent residency. They are less likely to report unfair treatment to the regulatory body, or report fraud to authorities for fear of detention and deportation.

Finally, the regulatory framework is unfamiliar or ineffective. Clients are often not aware of the difference between a regulated and unregulated consultant, paralegal, or lawyer, or what options are available to them in the event of misrepresentation or fraud. They are unfamiliar with the regulatory framework. Some who filed a complaint with Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council, ICCRC, either did not hear back or found the process inadequate.

I'd like to briefly share three examples with you of particular clients who have come from our member agencies.

Client example one. The clients paid a large amount of money to an immigration consultant to prepare an H and C application, and submit it in a timely manner. They didn't hear anything from IRCC about their application. The immigration consultant told them the file had been submitted, and that it would take a long time for IRCC to respond. They finally called IRCC themselves, and were informed that no application had been submitted.

Client example two. A client paid a consultant to prepare an H and C application. The consultant submitted the application in the client's name. The H and C was rejected due to lack of merit. The client later went to a legal clinic for assistance, and learned that there were a number of mistakes in the original application, likely explaining the rejection.

Client example three. Migrant worker clients were told by their employer to use the services of a specific non-registered immigration consultant to have their work visas renewed. Having charged the workers a fee to renew their visas, the consultant did not submit the applications, and their visas lapsed. They were told by the consultant that the employer would be fined because they were working illegally. The workers then had to leave Canada.

On the basis of this, and many other stories and examples, we have three recommendations.

First, in the most general sense, applicants should not be penalized. The submission of an incomplete application usually results in delays for the applicant, sometimes with very serious consequences, such as loss of status. Applicants should not be penalized for errors and misrepresentation by a consultant, but should be permitted to resubmit an application without penalty.

They should be allowed to review and correct mistakes made by consultants. Applicants who have been left without status as a result of mistakes made by consultants should be allowed to remain in Canada without penalty and permitted to submit a corrected application. An extension of a permit should be included if required.

The second recommendation is that more public education is required. There is a need for extensive and ongoing public education about the regulatory framework with respect to consultants, paralegals, and lawyers. This education should be available to all immigrant applicants, refugee claimants, migrant workers, and international students. It should include information on clients' rights and how to find a regulated consultant or legal representative. Information should be broadly available in a variety of formats and in a language understood by the applicant.

The final recommendation is that there should be stronger regulation of immigration consultants. The present system of self-regulation of immigration consultants has not protected newcomers from exploitation. The complaints process has proved ineffective for many. Our recommendation is to enact legislation to create an oversight body within the government to regulate immigration consultants. The legislation should contain detailed provisions for admission and accreditation requirements, a code of standards and rules, the scope of practice, areas of responsibility, insurance coverage, and mechanisms for dealing with complaints and disciplinary matters.

Thank you very much.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Perfect.

Ms. Panlaqui, the two of you have up to seven minutes.

[Maria Esel Panlaqui, Settlement Worker, Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office of Toronto]

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today. My name is Maria Esel Panlaqui, part-time settlement worker at Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office or TNO. TNO is a non-profit charitable organization and multicultural community-based settlement agency in Toronto.

We formally started the TNO caregivers and transition program in 2008. We provide support to live-in caregivers while they are in transition from temporary foreign workers to permanent residents. In addition to in-house services, we also offer alternative settlement service delivery that includes providing alternate services at churches, coffee shops, and apartment buildings. In addition, we offer services over the telephone during the evenings.

As a result of this, we get calls from caregivers in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatoon, and the Northwest Territories. These are workers who haven't been able to access services where they are located, either because they are not aware of our program and services, or because the services are offered from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and live-in caregivers can only access services on weekends and evenings.

Before getting connected to our organization, many of our clients already have had a bad experience dealing with immigration consultants. They seek the services of immigration consultants when they face challenges with regard to the processing of their PR applications. Challenges include long delays in processing of applications and renewals of open work permits and work permits. Permanent residents are refused also because of administrative errors of IRCC, medical inadmissibility of their family members or dependants, and lack of knowledge about how to apply for humanitarian and compassionate grounds or about how to make applications in Canada as live-in caregivers. Because of their precarious immigration status, these workers are easily taken advantage of by some immigration consultants, whether authorized or not authorized. Most often these workers say they can't discern whether their consultants are authorized or not.

In some instances, even though they don't trust them entirely, they still end up working with them because they don't know where else to get help. Most of our clients claim that they have been manipulated and intimidated by their immigration consultants. Most of these consultants are aware that these workers will not lodge a complaint against them because they know if they do so this will have a negative impact on their immigration application.

In the cases of unauthorized immigration consultants, some live-in caregivers were misled into believing that they were authorized representatives. We have anecdotal reports that some consultants are advertising themselves as being licensed when they are not. Our clients' experiences with unauthorized immigration consultants are worse. Some of these workers were asked to pay high fees up front, and later they found out the immigration applications they needed to file were not even submitted to IRCC. In most cases, these caregivers don't have enough financial resources to make the payments. They borrow money from their friends or get high-interest loans.

Obviously, the long processing of permanent residence applications and their precarious immigration status contribute to their vulnerability. One of the barriers we often see happening on the ground is they have limited access to free legal services from the community legal clinics. Although they are considered employed, they are low-wage earners, and because they are breadwinners and are often sending money back home, they don't have financial resources to get help. Those who are not aware of settlement services, agencies, or non-profit organizations end up dealing with immigration consultants who take advantage of their vulnerability.

Another barrier we see is that some of these workers have been calling us from different provinces in Canada claiming they are having difficulty accessing settlement services, especially those from settlement workers in school. I believe these settlement workers are not mandated by IRCC to assist in filing immigration application forms.

We also hear from our clients that there are many unregistered ghost consultants who conduct business unethically in origin countries like the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. They operate in the shadows and hence are not held accountable.

One of the biggest problems we see is that, while Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council can investigate its own members, it doesn't have the authority to go after non-members. Complaints about unlicensed consultants have to be forwarded to the CBSA, and migrant workers, refugees, and caregivers, the most vulnerable groups targeted by immigration consultants, are intimidated by the CBSA and don't want to file charges when the CBSA is involved.

Some of the other recommendations we would like to present are the following.

We strongly believe that a precarious immigration status is among the major causes of vulnerability of live-in caregivers, refugees, and other temporary workers, and that this allows some immigration consultants and employers to abuse them.

We recommend that the federal government provide landed status to all foreign workers, including live-in caregivers and allow them to enter Canada with their families. Live-in caregivers, refugees, and migrant workers face long periods of separation from their families, and, in many cases, this leads to feelings of anxiety, loneliness, pressures, and stress.

We recommend that the federal government take special measures to address this immigration backlog by allocating resources and addressing inefficiencies of IRCC in processing these applications. IRCC should also give special considerations and not penalize through outright refusal of the applications of these live-in caregivers, refugees, and other foreign workers. The IRCC should not blame and punish the victims but rather ensure that immigration consultants who abuse them are prosecuted.

We would also like to recommend that the IRCC undertake a complete review of the new caregiver program.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You have one minute.

[Maria Esel Panlaqui]

It is expected that with the changes in the new program, the requirements in the quota, and those new requirements on language and education eligibility, there will be more workers who will be targeted and manipulated by unauthorized immigration consultants.

We also have a few recommendations in terms of how you can consistently improve the websites of Canadian embassies and missions abroad and provide clear and prominent information on immigration consultants, including how to file complaints and ensure that complaints of victims will not have a negative impact on their immigration applications. Websites should provide lists of non-profit settlement organizations and community legal clinics, depending on where they live. These messages should be translated into different languages. This information should also be included in the pre-arrival orientation training provided to temporary foreign workers and live-in caregivers.

Prospective immigrants and temporary foreign workers should be informed that they are not required to use an immigration consultant to help them with immigration matters and should be provided with the phone numbers that function from within their countries, as well as other contact information, to enable them to direct questions to appropriate government authorities. All temporary foreign workers, including caregivers, should be required, within a few months of their arrival, to meet with a non-profit organization.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You're way over. I'm sorry, I'm going to have to stop you. Perhaps more of your thoughts, the two of you, will come out when questions are asked.

Ms. Dzerowicz, please go ahead.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Thanks so much, Mr. Chair, and thanks for the excellent presentations.

Ms. Emory, I believe one of your recommendations was stronger regulation for immigration consultants. Ms. Panlaqui, you talked about how some immigration consultants advertise that they're licensed when they're not.

I wonder if both of you might give me an example of when you've actually complained to the ICCRC. Have you actually used the ICCRC's complaint mechanism, and what was your experience? If you haven't used it, why haven't you?

Let's start with Ms. Emory and finish with Ms. Panlaqui.

[Leslie Emory]

It wouldn't be me who would use it, it would be a client. We have examples of when clients have used it, and they did not get a response, and/or the information that they got back was not helpful to their situation. If you want specific examples of that, I can get those. I don't have them here.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

It would help us to understand, when complaints are made through the current system, what's not working and what we need to improve.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. Emory, if you could give that information to the clerk in the near future, that would be appreciated.

[Maria Esel Panlaqui]

In that case, it's very hard to convince the workers to file a complaint, because once they find out that they have problems with immigration consultants or their immigration status, their priority is to fix that and get their immigration status so they can move on. In 80% of the cases, they either withdraw or tell us they don't want to pursue their cases. They just want us to help them with their existing case so it can be fixed with IRCC. Those are the challenges that we see on the ground.

I'm sorry, I didn't get a chance to introduce Michelle, one of our clients. She has had experience dealing with immigration consultants. I would like to ask that you give her about two minutes to share her experience.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

I'm okay to do that. Sure. Go ahead.

If you could just note two minutes, Mr. Chair.

[Michelle Marie Dulanas, Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office of Toronto]

It is a great privilege to speak in front of the committee on citizenship and immigration. On behalf of the caregivers, thank you for inviting me.

My experience when I arrived in Canada was very traumatic. It was April 10, 2014, when I arrived at Pearson International Airport. I trusted an immigration agent and paid about $4,500 and $900 airfare to sort out all the paperwork for employment as a live-in caregiver. The immigration agent was not very welcoming to start with, when she picked me up at the airport. She told me that my employer was not ready to have me yet, so she took me to her house instead, and then we went to the supposed employer and put my luggage there. She then said that we had to go out and open a bank account, which we did, and she put her home address on the account and a mobile SIM card. On the way back, she told me we needed to get my things back, as she said I didn't belong there and that there were other nice families I could work with. She also asked if I had friends and relatives here in Toronto, and I said no.

I was confused at that time, but still I did not react against her will as she was the only person I knew at that time. To my surprise, when we arrived at my employer's house, my things were all packed up and ready to be collected outside the house. The immigration agent brought my entire luggage to her garage, dropped me off at Yorkdale mall, and never came back. She said she was going to speak to my employer and would let me know what was going to happen next, but never showed up.

I was shocked and felt so humiliated, but did not complain because I was so scared. I cried day and night. I couldn't believe I had been scammed. To me, it was a big amount of money because I have a son to look after financially. A good Filipino stranger helped me to go through the process of looking for another job all over again, and it took me about eight months to get a work permit done.

The reason I am here right now is that I want to show you that my case is evidence that there are fake immigration agents who are engaging in unethical business practices. This immigration consultant is still acting as an immigration agent and bringing nannies to Canada from all over the world. I just met someone from the church who arrived in January 2017 and who was brought to Canada through this person. She, too, needs help emotionally and financially.

Thank you for having me.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Thank you so much, Ms. Dulanas, and thank you for your courage in being here today and sharing your story.

My question to you is how did you hear about the immigration consultant? Who gave you that recommendation?

[Michelle Marie Dulanas]

A friend of a friend. She told me there was a big chance that I could be reunited with my family.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Here?

[Michelle Marie Dulanas]

Yes. If I worked here for, like, 24 months, she encouraged me to think that after that, I could get my son and apply for residency. That gave me the spark to apply.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

So you just trusted the friend of your friend who made the recommendation?

[Michelle Marie Dulanas]

Yes.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Were there other people who were successful with the same immigration consultant?

[Michelle Marie Dulanas]

Yes.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

And that's the reason you trusted this immigration consultant?

[Michelle Marie Dulanas]

Yes.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

This is to Ms. Panlaqui and to Ms. Emory, if you've heard any stories. One of the things that always surprises me is that within our settlement agencies, we hear a lot of these stories. This is not new. We know the good consultants and the not-so-good consultants, and I wonder why we don't have more information within the agencies to warn people, to say who are not good ones, and who tend to be very good ones. Can you explain that to me?