Honduras  - A third group of 29 migrants from Honduras, selected by IOM and Maple Leaf Foods of Canada to work in the company’s food processing plants, travelled to Canada this week to begin their two-year contracts.
 
The four women and 25 men are arriving today in the city of Brandon, Manitoba, to work in the Maple Leaf Foods plant located in that city.
 
The IOM missions in El Salvador and Honduras, following a request from Maple Leaf Foods, began the initial recruitment in March 2012 by advertising the job opportunities.
 
Both countries accepted applications from 7,890 persons, carried out initial interviews, skills tests and medical exams, confirmed all documents and certificates, and made the first selection of candidates, which was presented to the employer.
 
Maple Leaf representatives travelled to the region to make the final selection of 245 persons to fill the vacancies in their plants in the cities of Brandon, Manitoba and Lethbridge, Alberta.
 
IOM also coordinated 120 hours of English language training and orientation sessions.
 
Maple Leaf Foods offers the migrant workers the option of extending their two year contracts and nominates those who have finished the initial two year contracts for provincial permanent resident visas that allow the workers to bring their spouses and children to Canada.
 
“Since 2007 IOM has facilitated the recruitment of more than 1,000 labour migrants from Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras and Mauritius for this company’s meat-packing plants in Canada.  In 2010 IOM and Maple Leaf Foods signed a Framework Cooperation Agreement to ensure a transparent, efficient and effective recruitment process, following the best to international standards,” explains Ricardo Cordero, IOM Senior Regional Labour Migration Specialist.
 
The National Statistics Institute of Honduras reports that some 863,000 young Hondurans aged between 12 and 30 are either unemployed or under-employed.  Honduras’ unemployment rate rose by 2.1 per cent in May 2012 to 51 per cent.
 
For more information, please contact
 
Evelyn Andino
IOM Honduras
Tel: +504 2220-1104