Support Indian Citizens Victimized by U.S. Guestworker Program

Written by barb howe Monday, 09 June 2008 04:53

     Workers held a rally here in DC at the US Department of Justice (950 Pennsylvania Ave) in solidarity with Indian citizens who were victimized under the H-2B guestworker program. The workers paid up to $20,000 USD to unscrupulous recruiters for visas they were told would allow them to live and work permanently in the US. The recruiters lied. The visas were actually temporary guestworker visas and the workers ended up in a labor camp working for a shipping company on the Gulf Coast called Signal International in deplorable conditions.

    The workers escaped from the labor camps earlier this year and began a campaign to raise public awareness in the US of the abuses that are happening under our current guestworker programs. (The Bush Administration is currently proposing changes to these programs which would actually make it easier for abuses such as these to happen. See this statement by the AFL-CIO on the problems with the H-2B program and our post Guestworker Programs Also Bad for Guestworkers for more information on the proposed changes to the H-2A agricultural guestworker program.)

    The company refuses to take responsibility for the abuses, blaming the recruiters that it used to bring in the workers from India. The U.S. Department of Labor allowed this to happen under its watch. The Indian government has so far refused to help its citizens and the workers are seeking protection under the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 so that they may remain legally in the US while an investigation of is carried out. They are also requesting that the US Congress hold hearings to focus on abuses under current guestworker programs and that the US and India engage in bilateral discussions on ways to protect the rights of Indian migrant workers in the US.

    On May 14th, the workers began a hunger strike and solidarity around their cause has been growing. For more information on how you can get involved in this important human rights campaign see the hunger strike page of the NoLa Workers' Center website and if you're in DC consider joining us at noon at the Department of Justice.

    To scroll through photos of the event, click the thumbnail below.

{gallery}indian guestworkers rally{/gallery}

 

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