• 22
  • April
    2011

In our last post, we wrote about a lawsuit against California-based agricultural company. The lawsuit claims that Thai workers at the company were subject to racial discrimination, were not paid enough, were forced to live in rat-infested houses, had their passports confiscated, and were threatened with deportation if they complained.

After the recruiting company in California lured workers into the country, the immigrants were sent to farms in a few states and were forced to work as slaves. The recruiting company is facing charges. However, the farms that received the workers are also not off the hook.

Although it is not yet known whether the farms that received the workers were actually ignorant of the abuse or if they simply chose not acknowledge it, they may face charges either way.

When the workers were in the fields, they were often threatened or abused. They were also segregated from native workers, and it is believed that the non-immigrant workers did not work under the same conditions.

One farm that is named in the lawsuit from the EEOC said that they did not know about the abuse of the Thai workers. They said that they did not abuse the workers or support the abuse, and they added that none of the workers had even complained about the working conditions. The company also claimed that they had already filed a judgment for breach of contract against the California-based recruiting company.

Sadly, many of the workers felt as though they had no way out of their current situations. Many of them paid between $9,000 and $26,500 for the opportunity to work in America. Because the workers were not been paid properly when they arrived here, they were unable to repay the debts they incurred to come here.

Hopefully continued work with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will provide the workers the justice and freedom they need and deserve.

Source: The Associated Press, "Agency sues Calif contractor, farms in Thai case," 20 April 2011