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Indian Shipyard Workers in Mississippi Charge US Company with Human Trafficking

by kate | March 11, 2008 at 10:40 am

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Patrice Riemens sent news of this to nettime. More than 100 Indian guest workers brought to Mississippi under Bush's guest worker program to work in a shipyard operated by Signal International have charged the company with human trafficking.

The workers report that they paid $15,000 - $20,000 dollars to recruiters and were promised green cards, but were instead issued temporary work visas and charged approximately $1000 monthly to live 24 people to a room.

Over a hundred Indian H2B workers at a shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi staged a walkout this morning. The shipyard is run by Signal International, and the workers contend they've been lured into a human trafficking ring created by the company in the aftermath of Katrina, which resulted in a severe worker shortage. They plan to "report themselves to the Department of Justice as victims of trafficking, and demand federal prosecution of Signal."