Over 100 Indians who quit work in a Mississippi shipyard have sued their employer demanding “tens of millions of dollars” in damages for allegedly bringing them to the US on a false promise of permanent residency and forcing them to work under inhuman conditions.

The Indian embassy said it will take whatever action is required to protect the interests of its citizens. They later dispatched two senior diplomats to New Orleans to get in touch with the Indian workers, the NGOs representing them and the employer Signal International.

“Based on their findings, we will take whatever action is needed to safeguard the legitimate interests of our citizens,” Rahul Chabra, Minister handling media affairs at the Indian Embassy, said in Washington.

US Congressman George Miller has also demanded that the US Secretary of Labour investigate the case.
Saket Soni, director of the New Orleans Workers’ Centre for Racial Justice, said the lawsuit against Signal International, a marine construction company which has denied the charges, and its American and Indians recruiters was filed in a US federal court in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The 82-page complaint says that Signal along with the recruiters, Malvern Burnett and Dewan Consultants, subjected the Indian workers to forced labour, trafficking, fraud and civil rights violations.

The damages, workers’ lawyers believe, “will run into tens of millions of dollars”.

Workers have demanded return of about $ 20,000 each they paid to the recruiters for green cards that they never received, and compensation.

Soni on Monday said that the allegations were “very serious” and were being looked into by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Signal had brought about 500 workers from India and the UAE over a year ago to work at its shipyards under the H2B guest worker programme. About 100 working at the Pascagoula shipyard quit last week alleging inhuman working and living conditions. Another 200 are still working at the shipyard.

Along with filing the federal lawsuit, the workers have filed formal complaints with the US Justice Department.

According to Stephen Boykevich of New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice, the main charge is conspiracy to traffic workers to the United States under false promises of Green Card or permanent residency.

Boykevich said that the workers have reported to the Department of Justice as victims and witness of human trafficking and their status will depend on the investigation by American authorities to see if they are given protected and legal status. “This is not a purely immigration matter,” Boykevich said adding that it also involves the Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

S M Gavai, India’s Consul General in Houston, said: “We are in touch with the workers in New Orleans as also the NGOs involved in the issue.”

“Consul K P Pillai and another senior official from the Indian Embassy will be travelling to meet the workers and others,” Gavai said stressing that efforts are also on to contact officials of Signal International.