Hundreds of migrant workers evacuated in the Okanagan Valley have been left in limbo due to wildfires and smoke. Without pay, they say they face an uncertain future.
A group helping migrant workers across B.C. is calling on the provincial and federal governments to step up supports after hundreds were displaced by wildfires.
Then the evacuations came. Some temporary foreign workers who pack cherries were sent on buses to Big White, a nearby ski resort. Three women Glacier Media spoke to said they had been put on a bus leaving Lake Country and had received food. Some praised their employers for getting them out on time. “There’s no connections here… We talk really under the table about our status,” he said. “What can we say? We are people without permission to work.”
But even as threat from encroaching wildfires recedes, those left to work outside in the fields and orchards face another persistent health concern: smoke. “I don’t blame them,” Gatica said. “They care for the workers, but unfortunately — and they are right — they can’t pay them for the days that they don't work.”Gatica says the challenges temporary foreign workers are facing have changed little since the 2021, when devastating floods hit B.C. The floods prompted at least 150 migrant workers to flee farms throughout the Fraser Valley, in limbo after their source of income was cut off.
Many temporary foreign workers are looking for support to help them get through the time they are evacuated and out of work, Gatica said. “As migrant workers, we make significant sacrifices in pursuit of the dream of supporting our families back home. We leave behind loved ones and familiar surroundings, only to face isolation, abuse, discrimination, and exploitation in Canada,” wrote the worker-led group to B.C. Premier David Eby and several federal ministers.
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