Over 100 Indian workers who were allegedly treated like “slaves” after being “tricked” into coming to the US, have reported their plight to the Department of Justice and demanded that their American employer be tried for human trafficking charges.

The Indian and US governments were looking into the developments at a Mississippi shipyard, where the Indians quit jobs protesting against the “slave treatment” by their employer. The workers were brought by promising permanent residency for a fee of $20,000. “The crimes committed by the company and the Indian recruiters are serious and are now being looked into by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the US,” worker rights activist Saket Soni said.  The workers alleged they lived “like pigs in a cage” in a camp run by Signal International in Pascagoula shipyard.