Trafficking Case Ends For 48 Thai Welders In California

[Jai Dee]

Trafficking case ends for 48 Thai welders

A firm settles claims of immigrants who arrived on work visas and were forced into near-slavery.

The immigrant welder thought he was coming to America, the "fairy tale place," to work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for wages six times higher than he could earn in his native Thailand.

Instead, he found himself trapped in near-slavery, working 13-hour days at a Long Beach restaurant. For three months of full-time work, he said, he was paid a total of $220.

The labor recruiter, he said, confiscated his passport, housed him in a shabby apartment with no gas, electricity or furniture and threatened to send him back to Thailand to face crushing debts if he complained.

But the ordeal of Sathaporn Pornsrisirisak, 43, will end today when federal authorities are scheduled to announce a $1.4-million settlement in a case involving him and 47 other Thai welders brought to California four years ago.

The case, settled by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Trans Bay Steel Corp. of Napa, represents what experts call the hidden face of human trafficking: migrant laborers legally recruited — largely from Asia and Latin America — but exploited and abused while here.

Though most public attention about human trafficking has focused on women and children in the sex trade, experts say laborers constitute at least half of the approximately 16,000 people trafficked into the United States annually.

In particular, the Thai welders represent bonded laborers: those forced into servitude to repay enormous loans in a scheme that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services calls the least known but most widely used method of enslaving people today.

"This case defies the stereotypical perception of what a trafficking case should be: women and children for the purposes of sex work," said Chancee Martorell, executive director of the Thai Community Development Center in Los Angeles, which was first contacted by the welders. "It's important for the general public to bear in mind that trafficking can occur any time, anyplace, to anyone."

Trans Bay denies any wrongdoing, saying it was "duped" by an employment agency into sponsoring more workers than needed, who then were diverted to the Long Beach restaurant and one in L.A. without the steel company's knowledge or permission.

Trans Bay attorney Doug Smith said the company agreed to the settlement to help the victims and warned other businesses to thoroughly investigate any potential employment agencies. Trans Bay is suing the agency — Kota Manpower Inc. of Thailand and Los Angeles — for alleged fraud.

"Trans Bay views itself as a victim," Smith said, "but they feel they need to step up and accept the responsibility of trying to help the people who were damaged."

Anna Park, a lawyer for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said her agency is trying to pursue charges against Kota, which has closed its L.A. office, but has not been able to locate company President Yoo Taik Kim.

The settlement gives most of the workers between $5,000 and $7,500 in personal injury damages, along with financial assistance for housing, relocation, education and other expenses. Trans Bay also has hired 22 welders and offered jobs to the others to start after they get work visas, according to Park.

And 17 of the workers have won an even greater prize: a special visa for victims of trafficking granted under a 2000 federal law that allows them to stay in the United States for three years and apply for legal permanent residency after that. Thanks to the visa, Pornsrisirisak was able to bring his wife and 10-year-old daughter to California in February. Trafficking visa applications are pending for 22 other workers.

"It is exhilarating to be free," Pornsrisirisak said in a telephone interview this week.

According to Trans Bay's Smith, the steel firm approached Kota to recruit 10 welders from Thailand to help manufacture piles and hinge beams for the Oakland Bay Bridge. Smith said the Napa steel firm agreed to pay Kota a compensation package that amounted to $18.80 per hour for each worker, and that the employment agency was supposed to pay the welders directly.

When the workers began complaining that Kota was not paying them as the contract required, Trans Bay terminated the relationship, Smith said. Meanwhile, Smith alleged, Kota improperly used Trans Bay documents to bring in additional workers under the nation's legal guest worker program.

That group included Pornsrisirisak. The soft-spoken laborer said he began seeking work overseas when his construction firm went belly-up in Bangkok. For the privilege of a coveted job in the United States, he was required to pay a $12,500 "recruitment fee" — money far beyond his capacity to pay with his $200 monthly wage. But he said he was desperate to provide for his family, so he borrowed the money from a bank and loan shark at exorbitant interest rates.

That, according to trafficking experts, is precisely the trap that many victims enter, rendering them vulnerable to threats of retaliation against their families back home if they don't stay on the job and work off the crushing debt.

Pornsrisirisak said he and several other men were taken to Long Beach in December 2002 and forced to renovate a Thai restaurant — stripping floors, fixing toilets, cleaning walls. After it opened, he said, he was made to work there daily as a waiter from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

A Kota employee confiscated workers' passports, drove them to and from the job and threatened them with deportation if they complained.

"It was unbelievable," Pornsrisirisak said. "I couldn't imagine that anything like this could take place in a country like America, which everyone believes is a perfect place, a fairy tale place."

After three months, Pornsrisirisak said, he and the others plotted an escape with a Thai patron of the restaurant who drove them to a Thai temple. The group eventually hooked up with the Thai community center in Los Angeles.

Martorell of the Thai center said the workers in the complex case were aided by various other agencies.

The Department of Labor obtained $61,000 in back wages from Trans Bay for the original 10 welders. The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles helped the workers win their special visas, in what attorney Nancy J. Reyes-Rubi said was initially a challenge to convince immigration officials that male laborers also can be trafficking victims.

The L.A.-based Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking helped the victims secure housing, jobs, healthcare, public benefits and, most important, permission for their families in Thailand to come here.

And after the Department of Justice declined to file criminal trafficking charges in the case, the Thai community center approached the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to pursue the case with civil charges of national origin discrimination.

Pornsrisirisak, who now works at Trans Bay, said he hopes to make the United States his permanent home.

"This is the greatest country in the world, where justice can prevail," he said.

Source: LA Times - 9 December 2006

[Jai Dee]

Thai workers get money, visas in LA human trafficking settlement

LOS ANGELES - A group of Thais brought to the United States by a suspected labor trafficker accused of forcing them to live in squalor while working for little or no pay will be compensated under a consent decree reached between the federal government and a Northern California steel company.

"No amount of money can compensate for what we have today, which is our freedom, our family and justice," said Sathaporn Pornsrisirisak, one of the victims. "Although I have seen the worst of America, I have also seen the best that this country has to offer, such as laws that can bring about justice for people who are so powerless and exploited that you can't imagine exists."

Details of the settlement were announced Friday at a federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. Most of the Thai nationals will receive up to $7,500 as part of the deal, according to Chancee Martorell, executive director of the Thai Community Development Center, which reported the alleged abuse.

The discrimination case was investigated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of 48 Thais who were subjected to human trafficking and slavery, authorities said.

"These workers were forced to live in cramped apartments without water, electricity or gas," said Anna Park, an attorney with the commission. "They had no light, they had no heat. They were constantly threatened with arrest and any attempts to escape they were told that the police and immigration would come and take them away."

A total of 49 Thai nationals were recruited by Yoo Taik Kim, who was tapped by Trans Bay Steel Corp. of Napa, Calif., to find welders, Martorell said. Kim managed to bring the Thais to the United States in December 2002 but he took away their passports, authorities said.

"Mr. Kim recruited these workers and made all these false promises for things that never materialized," Martorell said. "They lived in horrible conditions and worked for hardly nothing."

Ten people were hired to work on the Bay Bridge retrofit by Trans Bay, a manufacturer of hinge pipe beams. Others worked in two Thai restaurants owned by Kim in the Los Angeles area. The restaurant workers were kept in safe houses where they slept on floors and were given scraps of food, Martorell said. Some of them were paid about $200 over three months, despite working seven days a week, 10 hours a day, she said.

It wasn't until one of them escaped and went to the Thai community center that an investigation was launched. The two restaurants were later closed and one of the Thai nationals has returned home.

Kim's attorney, Dan Marmalefsky, told The Associated Press he had just learned about the accusations and his client was innocent. Kim, who is Korean but lived in Thailand and speaks the language, does not own any restaurants and did not take anyone's passport, he said.

Kim was helping out an acquaintance at Trans Bay who asked him to use his contacts with the Thai government to find some qualified welders, Marmalefsky said.

"When Trans Bay didn't follow through on its commitments, Mr. Kim on his personal expense offered the workers free housing, provided them with food and brought them to the Thai embassy to help them," he said. "He tried to do a good deed and this is his reward I guess."

Authorities say they are still looking for Kim, who also has a business in San Jose. A man identified by Marmalefsky as Kim called on a cell phone in Los Angeles Friday and said he had never been contacted by anyone on the matter. He said he only learned of the accusations through an article in the Korean press after returning to California from a recent trip.

"I didn't do anything wrong," said Kim, adding that he did not receive any money from Trans Bay.

A representative of the EEOC did not immediately return telephone calls.

Trans Bay has paid $64,000 in back pay to eight of 10 workers. The company also has given full-time jobs to some of the workers and found them housing, while others have received visas to remain in the U.S. or have immigration applications pending.

Trans Bay "felt it should step up and do what it could to make the situation right," said attorney Doug Smith, who estimates the company has paid more than $500,000 in the case.

The real culprit, Smith contends, is Kim, who he alleges was paid by Trans Bay. Smith claimed the workers hired by Trans Bay were supposed to be paid about $18.80 an hour by Kim, but it turned out they were given only $6.75.

Trans Bay broke its contract with Kim in mid-2003, Smith said.

"The company got completely swindled," he said. "It perceives itself as a victim of fraud by someone who turned out to be a labor trafficker."

Source: AP - 9 December 2006

[Jai Dee]

Thai slaves get $1 mln, US green card aid

Los Angeles (Agencies)

A steel firm which allegedly forced 48 Thai welders to become slaves will pay one million dollars compensation, US authorities said - about 36 million baht.

Under the terms of the settlement, Trans Bay Steel Inc has ageed to pay compensation for the workers. It will also provide further work on the San Francisco Bay Bridge project, housing, tuition and sponsorship for a green card to continue work and stay in the United States.

More from the Bangkok Post here.

[isaanbrit]

Shocking

[wpcoe]

Most of the Thai nationals will receive up to $7,500 as part of the deal, according to Chancee Martorell, executive director of the Thai Community Development Center, which reported the alleged abuse.

If true, that is absolutely appalling! What they endured is almost beyond a price tag, but $7,500 is surely inadequate. And, "up to $7,500"???

[Bottlerocket]

Somehow, I'm not convinced Trans Bay knew about the situation. The Korean has got a lot to answer for. Kota Manpower, hmmm?

[sonnyJ]

And 17 of the workers have won an even greater prize: a special visa for victims of trafficking granted under a 2000 federal law that allows them to stay in the United States for three years and apply for legal permanent residency after that. Thanks to the visa, Pornsrisirisak was able to bring his wife and 10-year-old daughter to California in February. Trafficking visa applications are pending for 22 other workers.

Why only 17 so far?

I feel sympathy for the ones who didn't get it.

Slavery is shocking for us westerners, but happens all the time in Asia in different forms.

If you would give out a deal that be a slave for some time in USA and then get a green card, I'm sure 25% of Asian population would sign up immediately.

So, a fairy tale ending to a nightmare in the fairy tale land for some..