Alberto was recruited in Mexico by a Canadian window cleaning company and promised a steady job in Canada, with his flight and work permit costs covered. But shortly after he arrived in Toronto, more than $11,000 was illegally deducted from his pay, leaving him in debt, working more than 10 hours a day for about $300 a week and relying on food banks to survive.

Sofia came to Canada from Honduras to work as a live-in caregiver. Isolated and unfamiliar with Canadian labour laws, she was forced by her employer to work 19-hour days — cleaning, cooking, shopping, doing laundry and caring for a two-year-old — for just $540 a month.

Marcus, an engineer from Mexico, was recruited to work for a Canadian cleaning company servicing everything from commercial buildings and supermarkets as well as window and carpet cleaning. His employer withheld his work permit and more than half his wages went unpaid, restricting his ability to leave or speak out.

None of the three realized they were victims of labour trafficking and in all three cases, the employers remain in operation and have faced no penalties.

Labour trafficking cases like these are on the rise and expected to grow, immigration experts and advocates warn, as Ottawa reverses course on immigration, slashing targets after years of policies that encouraged record numbers of migrant workers and international students to study, work and stay in Canada.

More people are now at risk of losing their immigration status and becoming undocumented, leaving them more vulnerable to exploitation in low-wage jobs, as fear of deportation and dependence on employers limit their ability to speak out or leave abusive workplaces. There were about 2,676,000 temporary residents, including asylum seekers, in Canada as of the end of March; about 1,938,805 temporary study, work and visitor permits are expected to expire by the end of this year.

Labour exploitation thrives at the intersection of Canada’s broken immigration system and the rise of precarious work, advocates say.  

“We’re tightening immigration pathways without strengthening worker protections and that is a dangerous combination,” said James McLean, the policy and research director for the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking.

“We are concerned this is a ticking time bomb.”

The Star has granted the workers anonymity and given them pseudonyms, due to their precarious immigration status, and reviewed their approved applications for vulnerable worker permits, issued to migrant workers who can show evidence of workplace abuse.

Labour trafficking is underreported

Labour trafficking is a widely underreported form of human trafficking and authorities have struggled to detect it and measure its prevalence in Canada.

Traffickers use deception and coercion to fill low-wage jobs with workers often escaping instability in their home countries. This can mean making false promises about living and working conditions here, threats to safety, illegal wage deductions and the withholding of passports or immigration documents.

While anyone can be a victim, labour trafficking disproportionately affects migrant workers whose status is tied to their employer, as well as international students in precarious, low-wage jobs in sectors including agriculture, construction, caregiving and hospitality.

Many are reluctant to report abuse for fear of losing their status, while others can be unaware of their rights or have had their documents confiscated.

Calls to the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline, reporting cases of labour trafficking, rose from 24 in 2020 to 100 in 2024.

A Statistics Canada report published in December also indicated an uptick in police-reported labour trafficking incidents, including more cases involving men and boys, who are more often trafficked for labour.

In 85 per cent of those cases, victims had some form of business relationship with the accused.

Immigration lawyer Gloria Carrasquero, who represented Alberto, Sofia and Marcus, said she has seen an alarming increase in undocumented migrants seeking legal help since recent immigration cuts took effect.

Tightening immigration pathways are pushing more migrants into isolated and precarious work, particularly in rural areas, where workers are more vulnerable to exploitation and labour trafficking, a trend she expects will worsen, she said.

The exact number of undocumented people in Canada remains uncertain, but federal estimates that have been cited for more than a decade suggest it could be around 200,000 to 500,000 individuals. Advocates say the number is likely far greater.

Carlos Rojas-Salazar, director of the Montreal-based Conseil Migrant — a non-profit that supports people with precarious status — said the organization has seen an “incredible” rise in undocumented people and migrants at risk of losing their status relying on shelters and food banks.

“We incentivized people to come here,” Rojas-Salazar said. “They were our guardian angels (during the pandemic) and now we’re getting rid of them as if they were disposable.”

A lack of enforcement

Even as reports of labour trafficking rise, police rarely lay criminal charges against alleged traffickers, said Idil Atak, a professor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University.

“Canadian authorities have been very, very ineffective in terms of prosecuting offenders,” Atak said, noting there have been few court decisions involving labour trafficking cases.

From 2014 to 2024, 5,070 human trafficking incidents were reported by police services in Canada, according to Statistics Canada data. Only 10 per cent of human trafficking cases completed in that time resulted in a guilty finding.

Even successful prosecutions do little to address the conditions driving the abuse, including continued demand for cheap labour, advocates say. In 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery said Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker programs are a “breeding ground” for modern forms of slavery.

Though not categorized as labour trafficking cases, the sharp rise in temporary foreign workers applying for open work permits to escape abusive employers points to the prevalence of exploitation among migrant workers. As of May 2025, applications in Ontario had increased more than 800 per cent year over year.

“We need to look at how the system itself is allowing this abuse to continue,” McLean said.

Canada’s national strategy to fight human trafficking expired in 2024 and has yet to be renewed. The strategy had gaping holes, advocates say, and barely addressed labour trafficking.

“The strategy was already problematic — there is no concrete commitment to address human trafficking and support survivors,” Atak said, adding that victims need income assistance, counselling and housing.

Asked why the strategy has yet to be renewed, Public Safety Canada said in an emailed statement that “work continues on the next iteration of the National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking,” adding that it will draw on findings from 2024-25 engagement sessions involving law enforcement agencies, survivors, front-line service providers, governments, and the private sector.

The federal department did not respond to inquiries on the timeline for a new strategy.

The risk is becoming even more acute as the immigrant settlement sector faces federal funding cuts, threatening essential services such as housing support and employment assistance for newcomers.

“The system is effectively creating vulnerability faster than it’s responding to it,” McLean said.

Sofia said she never imagined she could become a victim of forced labour. Her employer promised her a better job and a good opportunity to make money and support her family. Instead she found herself overworked and trapped with little money and nowhere to turn.

“I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t know who to go to.”

Alberto said the experience left him deeply depressed and too afraid to go to police, fearing deportation. He said many of his co-workers were undocumented and faced similar conditions of exploitation.

“I was hired by a Canadian company,” he said. “I never thought this could happen to me here, but it did.”

If you believe you may have information about a potential trafficking situation, you can call the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-833-900-1010.