Mexico Keeps Migrant Workers Home as Virus Rises on Canada Farms
- Move comes after hundreds of farm workers fall ill from virus
- Fewer workers could be ‘huge problem’ for Canadian produce
This article is for subscribers only.
Mexico plans to keep migrant workers from traveling to Canada amid a wave of coronavirus outbreaks on farms, threatening a labor squeeze in the northern nation’s fruit and vegetable industry as harvests start to ramp up.
There will be a “temporary pause” on migrant workers traveling to Canada while protocols and sanitary situations are reviewed, Daniel Millan, a spokesman for Mexico’s Foreign Ministry, said Tuesday in an email. The move comes amid concerns there are inadequate protections to keep workers safe from Covid-19 after two workers died and hundreds fell ill on farms in Ontario.