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Implications of closing the US border and Canada 2:37
(CNN) - Mexico will conduct a safety review of Canadian health policies and procedures before allowing more temporary workers to travel to Canada to work in the agricultural sector.
"This is a temporary pause to determine the circumstances surrounding the security conditions on the farms," said Oscar Mora, spokesman for the Mexican embassy in Ottawa.
- Traveling to Mexico in times of coronavirus: when, how and where to go
More than 60,000 migrant workers travel to Canada each year to perform seasonal jobs in the agricultural industries. A temporary ban means that up to 5,000 Mexican workers are waiting to come to Canada.
Ambassador Juan José Gómez Camacho, on behalf of the Mexican government, has been in daily communication with the Canadian government to try to understand why and how hundreds of Mexican workers have been infected with covid-19, weeks after completing 14 mandatory days of quarantine in Canada, Mora said.
CNN has confirmed that two migrant workers from Mexico have died in recent weeks and that dozens more have been treated at the hospital.
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Communal farm houses and overcrowded conditions in packaging facilities and greenhouses have contributed to the spread of the virus, the local health unit in Windsor-Essex, Ontario, acknowledged, where the deaths occurred.
The province of Ontario has been hardest hit by the outbreaks, and its prime minister said Monday that no one should blame migrant workers for getting sick.
"They came here, they isolated themselves for two weeks and they have had it since they were here," said Prime Minister Doug Ford. "I don't want any finger pointing at these hard-working migrant workers. They are good people, they have good intentions and they are also workers ”.
coronavirus