US lawsuit against seafood importers makes claims of human trafficking
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NEW YORK - RURAL Cambodian villagers have filed a lawsuit against four US and Thai companies, accusing them of trafficking and making them work in forced-labour conditions in a Thai seafood factory.
Their civil complaint, filed in California federal court, accuses the four companies in a joint venture of violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, a US law that aims to prevent human trafficking.
Retailing giant Walmart purchases shrimp and other seafood from the companies, two of which have US offices, according to the complaint.
Thailand's reputation has suffered in recent years after numerous investigations by news organisations and rights groups into human trafficking, slavery and violence in its multi-billion dollar seafood industry.
It has vowed to crack down on human trafficking and slavery and recently introduced reforms to its fisheries law.
The five men and two women filing suit in a Los Angeles court claim that after they left their homeland for Thailand, factory managers confiscated their passports and made them work up to six days a week for wages that were less than promised.
Some “were reduced to eating seafood they found washed up on the beach,” the complaint said.
They were not allowed to retrieve their passports to leave and return home, it said.
“What happened to me was wrong,” said Keo Ratha in a statement accompanying the lawsuit. “I filed this suit so companies would think twice before exploiting trafficked workers in the future.”
The complaint claims the Cambodian workers were victims of involuntary and debt servitude, forced labour and human trafficking in 2010 and 2011.
The named companies include Rubicon Resources, incorporated in Delaware with an office in Culver City, California, and Wales & Co Universe Ltd, incorporated in Thailand but registered to conduct business in California, the complaint said.
The two Thai companies are Phatthana Seafood and SS Frozen Food. No lawyers were listed in court documents for the defendants.
