INDIAN WORKERS PROTEST
"human trafficking & slave like treatment" in USA

A group of about 100 Indian workers are protesting their "alleged human trafficking and slave like treatment in a US," since last month. Last week, during a three-hour long dialogue, Indian ambassador to the United States Ronen Sen assured the group of Indian workers at Signal International's shipyard in Mississippi that he would do all he could to protect their rights. However, the workers, who had come to Washington (after an eight-day "journey for justice") from New Orleans to protest the Indian government's alleged failure to protect them, said they were not satisfied. They expressed disappointment that Sen had declined to give a timeframe for actions to open US-India talks on protecting future Indian workers from abuses of the guest worker programme.

More than 100 Indian workers at the Mississippi shipyard staged a walkout last month claiming they were victims of human trafficking and lived and worked in abysmal conditions. They claim they were lured to come on H2B visas as temporary workers for Pascagoula shipyard run by Signal after Hurricane Katrina caused worker shortage.

Saket Soni, director of the New Orleans Workers' Centre for Racial Justice, who served as an interpreter for the workers, as says that they lived "like pigs in a cage" in a company-run "work camp". "I've been a guest worker all my life. I've never seen these kinds of conditions," said Soni, contending that the workers stayed 24 people in a room, for which the company deducted $1,050 a month from their pay cheques." The workers claimed they had paid up to $20,000 each in order to come to the US.

"They promised us green cards and permanent residency, and instead gave us 10-month visas and made us live like animals in company trailers," said former Signal employee Sabulal Vijayan, who tried to organise his fellow workers last year and was fired. Signal sent armed guards to detain and fire the organisers, according to a press release from Stephen Boykewich, who works with Soni at the New Orleans centre. "We were trapped between an ocean of debt at home and constant threats of deportation from our bosses in Mississippi," Vijayan said.
Now the workers are taking action to protect future victims. "The recruiters who defrauded us are collecting money from other workers right now with the same false promises. We are speaking out to protect them," said Vijayan, who has testified before a Congressional subcommittee investigating post-Katrina labour violations in the region.

 According to Boykewich's release, the chain began in 2006 when recruiters in Mumbai and New Orleans together with Signal, and a subcontractor, used the post-Katrina labour shortage to create a trafficking racket within the guest worker programme. "The US State Department calls it ‘a repulsive crime' when recruiters and employers in other parts of the world bind guest workers with crushing debts and threats of deportation," said Soni. Signal has denied the charges in a statement claiming it spent over $7 million to house the workers.

  Reports stated that Sen gave a patient hearing to the workers and their NGO supporters who came marching to the Indian embassy from the nearby Dupont Circle chanting: "We want freedom, we want justice", and carrying signs demanding they be treated with dignity.

 After the meeting, the workers said the envoy appeared to take their complaints seriously, but they were not satisfied. "What we need is action, not just symbolic assurances," said one of the workers, Rajan Pazhambalakode. "We are not satisfied because the ambassador is locked in protocols. But human trafficking does not follow protocols," said Sabulal Vijayan, former Signal worker and organizer with the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity. Sen assured the workers that the embassy and the Indian government will go the extra mile in taking care of their safety, security and dignity. However, he reminded them that they could not breach established diplomatic protocol by directly interceding with such agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Immigration and Customs Services or the Department of Justice. "All of you Indian workers can approach me directly... we don't need interlocutors and interpreters," Sen said. "No Indian citizen should be ashamed to be on Indian territory...You are all a part of the family."

Detailing the kind of abuses the group had gone through at the Mississippi plant, the workers alleged that many of them had to pay as much as $15,000 to $20,000 for the promise of a green card. "We knew it was a H2B visa (for temporary guest workers) only at the very end," Vijayan said. Others complained of poor food, cramped accommodation and charges that "Indians were behaving like animals".

  Declining to share the report prepared by officials of the mission after a visit to the Mississippi plant, Sen said: "Internal consultations are not shared with anybody". But "Let there not be any mutual suspicion. It is an interim report. ...There is nothing in the report except facts. There is no judgement involved". Sen rejected as "completely wrong" an allegation that Indian officials had characterised the workers as "semi-literate and greedy" in a media report. "It is insulting and I do not accept it. Even if inadvertently your sentiments are hurt, I apologise for it," he said.

The company, Signal, has denied allegations that it mistreated workers. The company said, it would stop hiring guest workers until more safeguards are in place to prevent recruiting abuses. Richard Marler, Signal's president and chief executive, said he was shocked to learn that foreign workers were allegedly charged thousands of dollars by recruiters. He said Signal has severed its contract with recruiter Global Resources and its principals and plans to sue the firm. Marler said he was hurt by allegations that workers were subjected to poor living conditions, saying Signal provided catered meals, 24-hour transportation services, Internet access and other amenities. Marler said about 100 Indian workers who have stayed at Signal are happy with their jobs.

 When the workers' representatives sought the embassy's intervention regarding alleged surveillance since the start of their march, Ambassador Sen said: "We will not directly contact the US Immigration or Customs but we have already sensitised. "We do not dictate and we do not give ultimatums. That is the way we operate," he said when repeatedly asked by the organisers if he can come up with a specific timeline to address the grievances of the workers. "We can take certain action in our country... but we cannot give any timeline to US authorities on how to go about it," Sen said in response to a question. On the request to push for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), he said: "I will convey this request". The workers hope to meet key Congressional decision-makers on labour and immigration policy and hold a rally in front of the White House.

- by Lavanya Garikina .