Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:21PM
A US federal government agency has filed the largest human trafficking lawsuit against a California-based farm labor contractor.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accused the contractor, Global Horizons Inc, of forcing hundreds of Thai workers to harvest pineapples and coffee beans while living in rat-infested conditions on farms in Hawaii and Washington, a Press TV correspondent reports.
The commission seeks multi-million dollar damages for 200 Thai workers recruited to work in Hawaii and Washington.
The contractor "subjected the claimants to uninhabitable housing, insufficient food and kitchen facilities, inadequate pay, significant gaps in work, visa and certification violations, suspension, deportation, and/or physical violence", according to court papers.
According to court documents, the workers were not allowed to leave the property and were threatened and beaten.
They were kept away from non-Thai employees who appeared to be working under more tolerable conditions.
The lawsuit seeks back pay, punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief to prevent future discrimination.
“We are seeing the rise in number of men who have become victims of trafficking,” Chanchanit Martorell, executive director of the Thai community development center said.
Martorell said human trafficking cases like these are on the rise in America and that men are lured from their home country with promises of high-paying jobs in fields like construction and agriculture.
But when they arrive, their passports are taken and they are forced to work in unsafe conditions at the risk of being deported, she said.
According to analysts, since most victims of human trafficking are afraid to seek help, the cases are difficult to discover.
SB/HJL/MB
No comments:
Post a Comment