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Adult entertainment industry being ‘targeted unfairly’ by new immigration rules: industry expert

Strippers, escorts and massage parlour workers from outside the country need not apply.

Canada's human resources ministry unveiled new rules on Wednesday that will effectively prevent employers "linked to the sex trade" from hiring temporary foreign workers.

"Frankly this should have been done a long time ago," Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said in a press conference.

"Why would we grant visas to girls that we have a strong suspicion are going to end up under the thumb of a criminal gang being exploited and trafficked?"

The new regulations also cancel all existing temporary work visas to foreign-born strippers, effective immediately.

But Tim Lambrinos, president of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada says his industry is being targeted unfairly.

He told Vancouver's CKNW radio that "dancers are not sex trade workers."

"People who come to the clubs because they want to see something exotic. It's like when you go to the zoo you don't want to see the squirrels and the chipmunks and the raccoons fighting you want to see some exotic animals and that's the same demand here," he said.

"It's entertainment...it's an attraction. People want to see in Canada something different, something exciting, something that's not indigenous to our area."

Lambrinos is also concerned that the 700 or so foreign nationals who currently work as exotic dancers will lose their permits and be pushed into the underground economy.

"[These women] came here with the expectation that they could work and as long as they didn't get into any trouble and break any laws they would continue to work. And all of the sudden they get the rug pulled out from under their feet saying you have to go back home," he said.

"They're going to be lured underground. They're going to be more susceptible and driven into more precarious and dangerous situations."

Lambrinos insists the strippers aren't taking these changes lying down.

His group is planning to protest the new rules in court and on Parliament Hill.