Leben, Lernen & Arbeiten in Kanada » Vorsicht Falle !!!!!!

22.09.2008 12:50

Byoung Ho Cho, in vest, and fellow Korean truck drivers thought they were coming to Canada to guaranteed jobs. Investigation
A Mexican family responds to an Internet pitch, arrives in Toronto with the name and number of a stranger and instructions to stay at a hotel. The man collects 10 crisp $100 U.S. bills, cooks up a fake refugee claim and disappears.

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Twenty-four Korean truck drivers empty their bank accounts to buy into a dream spun by a Korean recruiter and come to Canada for "guaranteed" jobs that, in the end, don't pan out.

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A community activist perating a "non-profit" group out of a backstreet Toronto church draws hundreds of people facing deportation and offers to help them – for a fee.

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A woman facing removal pins her hopes on a consultant who, she claims, boasted of having an inside contact at Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and promised to make her problems disappear for $10,000. When nothing happens, she secretly records the consultant refusing to give her a receipt, telling her not to worry and chiding her: "In this country, you no have to be honest." For years, the migrant tells no one about the ripoff, even the police, for fear of being deported. [/size]

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ISSUE: [size=200]Unregulated foreign recruiters earn a profit by touting Canada as a place where jobs are practically guaranteed, but can't always deliver on their promises.

Recruiters team up with a local immigration consultant or someone billing himself as an "employment consultant" – a title that puts him outside the scrutiny of the regulatory body.

If things fall apart and hopes are dashed, it's shrugged off as a bad business deal.

RECRUITER: Justine Park, of ULSC Total Immigration Consulting Group, Korea

CONSULTANT: Yolanda Simao, registered immigration consultant

CLIENTS: 24 Korean truck drivers

STORY: Seven Korean truck drivers – all men, neatly dressed and toting documents – are gathered in a Toronto food court to talk about the slick presentations they attended in Korea in 2005 that proclaimed Canada's need for workers and extolled the joys and benefits of living here.

Told they could expect to earn $60,000 a year in Canada, these men, plus 17 others, were persuaded to pay Korean recruiter Justine Park $7,000 to $13,400 each for his services and the cost of language and skills training.

Byoung Ho Cho, acting as the spokesperson, describes in Korean how he borrowed from relatives to cover the fee. He says his understanding was that he could get permanent residency after obtaining a work permit – something that isn't legally possible, and which Park denies promising.

The drivers admit the paperwork said English skills would be required. But they say they were told verbally this would not be a problem – lessons would be provided. Some, deep in debt, brought families with them when they began arriving last summer, leaving behind homes and jobs.

Whatever was actually promised, the plan soon turned into a fiasco, as everyone involved admits.

The bottom line: Their English skills weren't up to snuff and all the promised jobs evaporated.

The plan was supposed to go like this: Park retains the services of a registered Toronto immigration consultant, Yolanda Simao, who in turn finds a company that needs drivers and a school to train them. Simao also prepares paperwork for the federal human resources department, bolstering the point that there's a shortage of drivers. On their okay, the immigration department issues work permits in the employer's name, allowing for a year of work before the drivers must leave temporarily and reapply. (The term was recently extended to two years.)

So who's to blame for how it turned out?

Park admits he failed to get the men the jobs he guaranteed in a contract. He says his mistake was not recognizing the level of English proficiency the employer required, and he feels responsible.

Eighteen of the Koreans have signed a complaint lodged with the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants against Simao. It will be the society's job to determine if the work she did falls within its jurisdiction – whether she was acting as an immigration consultant for the drivers or merely as an employment consultant for the company.

She says her only client was Park, that she was not retained by any driver and didn't perform official immigration work on their behalf, although she offered some advice. She also says she has no idea what the men were promised in Korea.

In April 2006, the drivers received a letter signed by Simao, introducing herself as an authorized immigration consultant.

"I am representing all of the Korean truck drivers on behalf of ULSC of Korea in preparing applications to the Canadian Consulate in order to obtain your work permit in Canada," she wrote in English. "I understand the anxiety and frustration you are feeling as the process is taking longer than anyone expected."

She explained the process and noted that "it is important to understand that a program of this magnitude has never existed in Canada."

Simao says she sent the letter at Park's request.

The drivers arrived on visitors' visas, attended driving school and last fall received one-year work permits. Most took ESL lessons in a room on the same floor as Simao's office, her daughter being one of the teachers.

Park wouldn't say how much he stood to collect but says he actually lost money on the deal. He paid Simao an undisclosed sum for her services, the trucking school $120,000 to train the men, had to pay for extended English lessons and incurred expenses trying to find them new jobs.

Park characterizes the mess as growing pains in his fledgling business, which he intends to stick with long-term. He said there are about 80 Korean companies like his recruiting workers for Canada.

OUTCOME: No law, no immigration regulation or CSIC rule can protect foreign workers from bad business deals, which is how everyone involved views the situation – except the drivers.

Driver Guen Tak Bae, 45, says that most had come to Canada "not for ourselves, it is for our children." He says it would be hard to go home and face family and friends. "What can we say to them? We are a failure?"

When jobs with the original company fell through, the men were free to find another employer and have the permits renewed.

Simao says most are still without work and she feels badly for them. She is trying to find them jobs at no cost, and plans not to get caught up in such a "fiasco" again. She got one a new work permit and believes five others have found employment. An Alberta employer may hire some. At least one has improved his English and hopes to be hired by the original employer.

Bae is still seeking work. Cho hopes to land a job in Calgary. Some gave up and went home.

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