Cambodian villagers have filed a lawsuit against four companies that supply American supermarkets, claiming they were trafficked to work under slavery-like conditions in a Thai seafood factory that exports to the US.

The civil lawsuit, filed in June in a California federal court, accuses the US and Thai firms of knowingly profiting from the villagers’ working conditions and violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, a US law aimed at preventing human trafficking. Last week, the firms filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on jurisdictional grounds.

 

 

The seven villagers claim they were recruited to work in Thai seafood factories that produce shrimp and seafood for export to the US. Promised good wages, many of the villagers – none of whom had previously left Cambodia – took out loans to finance the huge travel and recruitment fees. In some cases they even remortgaged their farms to obtain the jobs, the complaint states.

On arriving at the Thai factories, however, the five men and two women were forced to work six or seven days a week in horrendous conditions, the lawsuit alleges. Wages were far less than promised, accommodation consisted of a single concrete floor, and one toilet served 200 people, according to the complaint.

 

read more https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/aug/18/cambodian-villagers-sue-us-thai-firms-human-trafficking-forced-labour-claims-walmart-shrimp?

I wish them the best of luck and hope they remain safe and healthy.

The US has hundreds of years of history of abusing their labor starting with the slave trade.

Very possible local managers hid the bad conditions (especially if profitable for them) when the u.s. management visited the factories. Happens all over the world.

Edited August 19, 20169 yr by underbob
clarify