"Mexico seeks to overhaul Canada migrant farmworker program amid climate disasters", 30 November 2021

...Mexico is pushing for changes to Canada's migrant farmworker program, a top Mexican official told Reuters on Tuesday, as migrants beset by natural disasters call for better pay, accessible care, labour mobility and employment insurance.

Mexico is renegotiating its Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program agreement with Ottawa. The agreement outlines Mexican migrant farmworkers' rights and conditions of their employment in Canada. But this contract renewal is part of a larger rethink of the program that started last year, said Juan Gabriel Morales Morales, head of the consular section of Mexico's embassy in Canada...

Among the key issues Mexico hopes to tackle are eligibility for employment insurance, restrictive criteria for which have left some who cannot work because of flooding without pay, advocates say.

Mexico is also seeking an end to "early repatriation," which Morales Morales said forces workers to return home even when they still need health care in Canada or when a contract ends early but they could find work elsewhere.

Many of these problems have been magnified by the coronavirus pandemic and natural disasters, Morales Morales said...

Canada's employment ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment...

Rojas criticized Mexico-Canada negotiations for excluding migrant workers themselves...