Not Enough: Justice Dept. Indicts for Human Trafficking Under H-2A Guestworker program
Written by Bruce Goldstein Friday, 28 August 2009 12:58
The Justice Department brought a criminal case of human trafficking against a farm in Hawaii and its recruiter in Thailand. The indictment alleges that Thai workers in Thailand were misled about the earnings opportunities in US agriculture on temporary work visas, borrowed large sums to pay to obtain the jobs, had their passports taken from them once they arrived at the job, were threatened with being fired and deported before they could earn enough to pay the debt, and did not receive the job terms promised.
The H-2A agricultural guestworker program needs reform beyond an occasional lawsuit or indictment. Because the U.S. employer decides which workers obtain the visas from the U.S. government, and the worker must leave the US if the job ends, with no right to be recalled in a following season, the foreign workers are at the mercy of the recruiter and the employer. DOL has refused historically to reform the recruitment system under the H-2A program despite ample evidence over decades -- and in several different countries where foreign H-2A workers are recruited -- that the recruitment system is often corrupt. Labor unions have had some success in reforming the recruitment system, but the employers that want to participate in reform and pay the legal costs of recruiting and employing workers often face a competitive disadvantage. Frequently, a labor contractor in the US says, "I'll do it for less and without a union." Doing it "for less" often means that the workers pay high fees to obtain the job and then don't receive what they are owed on the job.
A U.S. government program to bring in foreign guestworkers must include monitoring and enforcement in the recruitment process in the foreign country. An occasional after-the fact indictment or lawsuit will not suffice to stop H-2A program recruitment abuses.
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