A new report released Tuesday is calling on both the provincial and federal governments to do more to protect migrant workers coming to Prince Edward Island to take on what is considered essential work in the agriculture and fish processing industries.
Researchers from the Cooper Institute and Dalhousie and St. Thomas universities interviewed 15 migrant workers who travelled to P.E.I. last summer during the COVID-19 pandemic, looking at whether they were provided with enough protection from the virus.
The report found that while COVID-19 protocols were followed in the workplace, the same could not always be said for the living conditions of temporary foreign workers.
"The pandemic exacerbated workers' working and living conditions. So for instance: overcrowding. I would say housing was the biggest issue by far in what we found," said Raluca Bejan, an assistant professor of social work at Dalhousie and an author of the report.
