220 Asian workers sue three U.S. firms - they say they were kept in virtual slavery
About 220 workers from Asia have filed a lawsuit in federal district court in New Orleans, claiming they are victims of human trafficking and were lured into virtual slavery in Louisiana.
The suit claims that the men, mostly of Indian heritage, were lured to Louisiana by empty promises of well-paying jobs and then "kept against their will at various locations and . . . not allowed to leave." Many of them "were reduced to eating out of trash cans and became homeless and destitute," the suit says.
Named as defendants, along with their companies, are: B.J. Singh, who is believed to be a Canadian national and owner of NTS Skillforce Resources; Terry Forrester, an Idaho resident who runs Labor Consultants International; and Chad Chandler of Centreville, Miss., president of Falcon Steel Structures, a Mississippi company approved to do business in Louisiana, and an incorporator of Comerford Enterprises, another Mississippi company that was dissolved two years ago.
When they arrived in Louisiana, the suit said, "the workers were forced to stay in out-of-the-way hotels and holding areas, where they were refused food and medical attention and told they would work randomly or periodically as defendants saw fit, further creating a psychological state of total dependence and terror in the plaintiffs."
Full Story from the Times - Picayune
About 220 workers from Asia have filed a lawsuit in federal district court in New Orleans, claiming they are victims of human trafficking and were lured into virtual slavery in Louisiana.
The suit claims that the men, mostly of Indian heritage, were lured to Louisiana by empty promises of well-paying jobs and then "kept against their will at various locations and . . . not allowed to leave." Many of them "were reduced to eating out of trash cans and became homeless and destitute," the suit says.
Named as defendants, along with their companies, are: B.J. Singh, who is believed to be a Canadian national and owner of NTS Skillforce Resources; Terry Forrester, an Idaho resident who runs Labor Consultants International; and Chad Chandler of Centreville, Miss., president of Falcon Steel Structures, a Mississippi company approved to do business in Louisiana, and an incorporator of Comerford Enterprises, another Mississippi company that was dissolved two years ago.
When they arrived in Louisiana, the suit said, "the workers were forced to stay in out-of-the-way hotels and holding areas, where they were refused food and medical attention and told they would work randomly or periodically as defendants saw fit, further creating a psychological state of total dependence and terror in the plaintiffs."
Full Story from the Times - Picayune
