Dionne Rose, Staff ReporterThe Ministry of Labour and Social Security will be putting more stringent requirements in place for persons participating in the Canadian Farm Work Programme.
The Minister of Labour, Horace Dalley told The Gleaner this week that the new requirements arose from a recent study conducted by the Canadian authorities in 2005, which showed that majority of the persons who were deported from Canada for criminal reasons, went their on the farm work programme.
"What was alarming, (is) that of the 225 deportees from Canada, last year, 119 of them went to Canada through the farm work programme," he said.
As a result of these findings, he said he has decided to take more foolproof measures to protect the programme.
"We are going back to the selection process, MPs have to pay more attention to the persons they are recommending for the farm work programme," he said.
"We have taken some steps to ensure that the information we have on every person who is recommended is information that we can keep for future reference," he explained.
He said that some of these farm workers who ran off on the programme, entered into marriages of conveniences and turn up later applying for landing status or refugee status.
"So, we are tightening the screws on the programme. What we are going to do, only Members of Parliament will get farm work tickets", he said.
"No farm work tickets will be issued to councillors or any other NGOs as of now, and that is my decision as Minister of Labour," he informed.
Other new requirements, he said, will be a new age limit of persons participating in the programme.
The new age limit will be 22 to 45 years instead of 20 to 35 years.
On Tuesday Mr. Dalley held a meeting with Members of Parliament to discuss the changes to the programme.
MPs concerns
But some MPs have raised concerns on the new requirements in relation to the programme.
One such MP is Central St Mary Member of Parliament, Dr. Morais Guy, who said that prospective participants would now have to demonstrate to the Canadian authorities that they have some ties back in Jamaica, including land titles or some other assets.
"My concern is that many of the persons whom you try to assist in going on the farm work programme may not have either of these and this is where the dilemma comes in," he said.
Responding to this, Minister Dalley insist that will not be the case, he said persons are only turn down because of health reasons, if they have a police record or because of drugs, not because of the assets they don't have.
