Record Numbers of Temporary Foreign Workers Claim Abuse

Record numbers of foreign workers in Canada are claiming their employers are abusing them, straining a federal relief program designed to help them find other jobs.

In 2025, more than 15,600 foreign workers applied for a federal open work permit intended to help them escape abusive workplaces — a more than twelvefold increase from the number of applications in 2021.

Federal data show that most of those claims are being accepted, indicating federal immigration officials believe workers’ claims of financial, sexual, physical or verbal abuse are often credible.

In 2025, immigration officials approved more than 9,800 open work permit applications — more than they did in every previous year of the program combined.

Those same data also suggest the glut of applications has driven up permit processing times, something advocates warn could put vulnerable workers in danger.

Jonathon Braun, a lawyer with the Vancouver-based Migrant Workers Centre, said the surge in applications and approvals is a tacit acknowledgement of structural problems with the program.

“It just really highlights how horrible the temporary foreign worker program is,” Braun said.

Behind the numbers

The temporary foreign worker program, or TFWP, allows Canadian employers to hire foreign workers when they cannot find Canadian residents for a given job.

TFWs usually arrive on “closed” work permits that require them to work a specific job for a specific employer, meaning they cannot easily leave that job without losing their status to remain in Canada.

Business groups argue the program is essential for farms, restaurants and food processing businesses that otherwise struggle to find enough domestic employees to fill their needs.

Workers and migrant advocates, though, say the program puts vulnerable foreign workers in low-wage positions at the mercy of their employers. Workers have claimed their wages were stolen, that they were forced to live in decrepit accommodations and that their employers physically or sexually assaulted them.

A 2023 report from a United Nations special rapporteur labelled the program as a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery,” a characterization the federal government rejected.

Federal officials have long pointed to the open work permit program for vulnerable workers as part of their response to problems in the TFW program.

That program allows workers to apply for a one-year open work permit if they can demonstrate they’re at risk of abuse in the workplace.

Since 2021, the number of applications to that program has skyrocketed, something federal officials attribute to growth in the program itself as well as awareness among workers.

“We remain committed to protecting the health, safety, and human rights of anyone who works in Canada as well as working with partners and stakeholders to continuously find ways to strengthen the TFW program’s integrity and to enhance temporary foreign worker protections,” said Taous Ait, a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Lena Diab.

Braun agrees awareness helps explain the increase in the number of applications. But he believes tightening immigration policy may also play a role.

In March 2024, then-Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced a federal plan to reduce the proportion of temporary residents in Canada, including temporary foreign workers.

Braun suspects some of the workers applying for the open work permit may have been putting up with abusive employers in the hopes of attaining permanent residency in Canada — but decided to leave when that became less likely. He also suspects some workers may have applied to the program in desperation.

“There’s some people maybe grabbing at a branch, but there are people applying to it because they’re facing very real abuse at work,” Braun said.

Delays and rejections

Braun said he has informally noticed more claims are being rejected, something supported by federal data.

In the first six months of 2026, the federal government rejected 47 per cent of the applications it made a decision on, compared to just 29 per cent for all of 2025.

Braun suspects that’s the result of a top-down directive to rapidly process the glut of applications, which he believes is causing the government to reject more applications of every kind — including those he says are extremely credible.

“It seems like staff aren’t giving applications the attention they deserve, and so things are just being blanket-rejected,” Braun said.

“It feels like a bit of a crapshoot.”

There has also been a spike in processing times. In 2021, federal officials say it took them 17 days to finalize 80 per cent of applications in an eight-week period.

In 2025, that waiting time had grown to 72 days. It was 75 days for the first six months of 2026.

Braun said those delays threaten workers who live in unsafe housing or who face violence from their employer and do not have the money or resources they need to flee.

“In the early days, you could get an approval in three days… two weeks would be the upper end,” Braun said.

“In some cases, it is an issue of safety.”

Ingrid Mendez, the executive director of the Migrant Workers Centre, said many workers rely on income from their jobs in Canada to provide for families at home — making the stakes that much higher.

“Even when they know about their rights, workers are afraid that if they tell someone they will get in trouble and they will be sent back to their country of origin,” Mendez said.

Mendez said her centre has written to the federal government to ask why the criteria for the permits have apparently become more stringent.

Sarbjit Gill, a legal advocate at Archway Community Services in Abbotsford, B.C., said many workers are still hesitant to even apply to the program because they depend on employers for housing and income.

He said he has received anonymous calls requesting information about the program — something he believes indicates that many workers are afraid of being identified.

“They have nowhere else to go,” Gill said.