Nurses recruited from West Africa say Quebec training program has left them destitute

MONTREAL — A Montreal civil rights organization says a Quebec program to recruit and train nurses from overseas is leaving some participants in dire straits and dependent on food banks.

Some nurses recruited from West Africa say they’ve been left destitute after getting expelled for failing one part of the training program. They say they’ve lost access to their weekly stipend and their part-time work as orderlies.

One nurse, who spoke to reporters Thursday on condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions, said he worked for 10 years in his home country and quit his job to bring his family to Quebec’s Montérégie region. After failing one part of the training program, he said, he’s now living more precariously than he has in years.

“I can’t even meet my children’s needs,” he said during a press conference in Montreal. “It’s hard, because I chose to participate in this project, and I had faith in this project, and now I’m in a desperate situation.”

In 2022, the Quebec government announced a $65-million program to recruit and train 1,000 nurses from francophone countries to work in regions of the province with acute nursing shortages. Under the rules, candidates receive training at junior colleges in their designated region, paid for by the government. They’re paid $500 a week, in addition to money for daycare and transportation, and can also work part-time as orderlies.

But Fo Niemi, general director of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations, says at least 50 of the recruits have met bureaucratic hurdles or outright discrimination since coming to Quebec. If they fail one course, he said, they’re expelled from the program and lose access to all financial support and their part-time work.

“They are in limbo, many of them have to rely on food banks to survive, and many of them are very, very desperate,” he said. Niemi wants the Quebec human rights commission and the provincial government to investigate the program.

Expelled candidates can theoretically re-enroll, Niemi said, but they’re tied to the region where they started their training. If junior colleges in the area don’t offer courses that begin before their study permits expire, he said, they risk being deported. In the meantime, they’re not allowed to find work elsewhere.

“They can’t go to another (junior college) to continue the training,” he said. “They can’t even go to McDonald’s to flip burgers.”

Niemi said the “excessively restrictive conditions” of the program aren’t fully explained to recruits before they leave their home countries, often with families in tow.

A second nurse at Thursday’s press conference, who has five years of experience in Côte d’Ivoire, said it takes time to get used to Quebec’s health-care system. “There are many things here in Quebec that we don’t know,” he said. “Then when you make any mistake, you are fired.”

He was expelled from the program in Quebec’s Abitibi—Témiscamingue region, but along with 10 other candidates who failed part of the program, he is re-enrolled this fall. However, Niemi said that course doesn’t yet have a teacher in place.

Niemi said other recruits have faced discrimination during their training, including being accused of bad body odour. Some have been offered deodorant by their supervisors in a manner intended “to humiliate them publicly,” he said.

The Quebec Immigration Department was not immediately available for comment on Thursday

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 23, 2024.

Maura Forrest, The Canadian Press