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Thousands of women are seeing their health deteriorate due to the conditions in which they are forced to live and work without migrant status in Quebec. Workers and migrant rights organizations are calling on the government to regularize all people with precarious status, fair wages, decent working conditions and universal access to health.
“This year we lost two of our members and friends, Lourdes Castro and Yolanda González, because they couldn’t afford the health care they needed. Other members fear the same fate, having accumulated hangovers after many years of precarious work, “deplores Viviana Medina, community organizer at the Center for Immigrant Workers (CTI) who oversees the Committee of the Association of Workers and Workers of Employment Agencies (ATTAP).
“A serious workplace accident combined with precarious living conditions led to Lourdes death last September,” he said. Having exhausted her savings to seek treatment for a never officially diagnosed occupational disease, she had to leave Canada after eleven years of life without status, being killed at home in Mexico shortly thereafter due to the advanced stage of her illness.
CTI has received invoices totaling over $ 300,000 dollars for the assistance provided to Mmyself Castro in a Montreal hospital, including two operations and blood transfusions. “The hospital sends us the bills, because we gave the address of the center when Lourdes was admitted to hospital to protect it, because it happens that hospitals call immigration to report patients. without status ”, says Mmyself Medina.
Since it is impossible for undocumented or insecure immigrants to pay for medical care, they often choose not to go to hospital to the detriment of their health, for fear of being reported and then deported.
Fear the worst without status
“The death of Lourdes deeply affected all of us in the center [CTI]. Knowing that her death could have been prevented is very difficult, ”deplores Nadia, a Colombian living in Quebec, who arrived in 2019 as an international student. Without immigration status for a few months due to the delay in processing your permanent residency application, you agree to speak with us under a fictitious name.
“Not entitled to health insurance, I’m afraid I’ll find myself in a similar situation someday,” launches the woman who worked first in a clothing warehouse in Montreal then in commercial and hotel cleaning maintenance in Quebec. “Working long night shifts, with no status and no protection is very difficult,” he adds, noting that disease prevention is key to saving lives.
“Living day to day without knowing what happens to my residency application generates enormous stress and anxiety in me,” adds Nadia. Send a heartfelt cry to the government so that access to free health care is granted to all women in Quebec regardless of their immigration status. “We exist, we contribute to society and we too have the right to preserve our health.”
A mobile clinic to help them
According to a report by the Sherpa University Institute, some 50,000 people living in Quebec currently do not have medical insurance. “We are calling for a guarantee of access to comprehensive health coverage for all people in Quebec, regardless of COVID-19 related care and other issues,” says Isabelle Brault, a social worker at the Médecins du Médecins clinic. World.
During 2018-2019, out of 447 new patients who consulted the mobile clinic of MdM for precarious migrants, 63% were women, 41% had no status, 82% lived below the poverty line and 71% % restricted their movements for fear of police and border officials. Although most of the clinic’s new patients were in Montreal, 13% consulted the mobile clinic outside Montreal, 73% of whom lived in unstable residential situations.
“No woman should die”
The pandemic has aggravated the plight of thousands of precarious women working in essential sectors such as domestic and commercial cleaning, catering, agriculture, food, manufacturing and the care of children, the elderly and the sick. . ATTAP sent an open letter to Prime Minister François Legault on 9 May asking for their status to be regularized and for access to free health care and income replacement benefits.
Organizations fighting for the rights of migrants continue their actions so that women no longer lose their lives if they are not treated with dignity. “What our two deceased sisters went through was horrible, the government can’t continue to ignore us!” Says Mmyself Medina.
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