GULFPORT, Miss. (CN) - Signal International enslaved and defrauded hundreds of foreign workers after charging them thousands of dollars apiece to be trafficked into the United States to clean up Gulf Coast areas devastated by hurricanes, the workers claim in five lawsuits.
In federal lawsuits in Gulfport, Miss. and Beaumont, Texas, the workers claim Signal and others enslaved them in peonage, involuntary servitude and forced labor after defrauding and trafficking them into prisonlike conditions.
The lawsuits claim that lead defendant Signal, its labor recruiters and others brought 590 foreign workers into the country, exploited them inhumanely and threatened to deport them if they complained.
Citations in this article are taken from one of two lawsuits filed in Gulfport this week. Lead plaintiff George Paily Paulose Chakkiyattil has 27 co-plaintiffs.
Chakkiyattil claims Signal, an Alabama-based marine and fabrication services provider, charged them $10,000 to $16,000 apiece in "recruitment fees," then never even bothered to apply for green cards for the workers, as promised.
"The plaintiffs are 28 men from India," Chakkiyattil says in the 123-page lawsuit. "They were promised employment, prosperity and permanent residence in the United States. They each paid thousands of dollars in recruitment fees to take advantage of the promised opportunity, incurring substantial debt. When they arrived in the United States, they were forced, under threat of removal to India and economic ruin, to perform arduous work in dangerous conditions and to pay exorbitant costs for substandard housing and food."
Both Gulfport lawsuits name as defendants Signal International and several Louisiana- and India-based recruiters and "consultants."
The workers claim Signal's agents recruited them from India from 2003 to 2006, charging them $10,000 to $16,000 apiece in "recruitment fees."
After waiting for another employment opportunity that never materialized, the guest workers ended up working at Signal's facilities in Pascagoula, Miss. and Orange, Texas, according to the complaints.
The recruiters advertised jobs in the United States, held meetings and testing sessions, and promised they would apply for green cards on behalf of the workers and their families, which they would receive within two years of arriving in the United States, Chakkiyattil says in the complaint.
He claims the defendants assured workers they would not need to pay any more fees for the green cards, and that the recruitment fees they had paid would be refunded if the green card applications failed.
"After Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005, Signal required laborers to replace Signal employees who had been displaced by the storm and to fulfill the demand for repairs and fabrication caused by damage from the storm," the complaint states.
"In or around May or June 2006, Signal authorized [co-defendants] Dewan [Consultants aka Medtech Consultants], Global Resources and [Law Offices of Malvern C.] Burnett to act as its agents in India and the United Arab Emirates for the purpose of recruiting Indian welders and fitters.
"Signal further authorized its agents to represent that Signal would assume, from [defendant] J & M Associates [of Mississippi], sponsorship of the pending green card applications on behalf of plaintiffs and others, and that Signal would apply for at least two H-2B visa extensions on behalf of all the Indian H-2B workers, including plaintiffs, to allow them to remain in the United States working for Signal while their green card applications were being processed."