HOUSTON (CN) - More than 100 Vietnamese nationals say they were "assaulted, imprisoned, defrauded, and treated like indentured servants" making clothes for U.S. companies in Jordan, where labor contractors - and the Vietnamese government - lured them with promises of high-paying jobs.
The workers were starved, beaten, imprisoned at the factory, and at least one died from the abuse, according to the federal complaint.
The workers claim defendant U.S. companies Aramark and Academy Sports & Outdoors were part of an "international human trafficking conspiracy," as they contracted the factory to make clothes for them.
Lead plaintiff Thuy Thi Vu aka Phuong-Anh Vu sued a slew of companies and individuals, joined by co-plaintiff Jane and John Doe 1-109s, Boat People SOS, and its director Dr. Nguyen Thang.
The lead defendants are W&D Apparel (Jordan) Corp. and its corporate parent, Well and David Corp.
Also sued is Tran Viet Vu, deputy general consul of Vietnam in Egypt.
The workers say Tran Viet Vu "facilitated the human trafficking of plaintiffs by either directly or indirectly approving the practices of labor export companies and/or W&D Apparel."
Also sued are Aramark Corp.; Academy Sports and Outdoors; the Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs; and several Vietnamese labor contractors.
Phuong-Anh Vu says she was "the only plaintiff who escaped the gruesome conditions" at the factory, and that her call to a Vietnamese magazine led to an article about the workers' plight that resulted in their rescue.
Vu's story is recounted in the 25-page complaint.
"Phuong Anh Vu was born on November 11, 1978, and has two children, ages 17 and 15. In or around the end of 2007, when Phuong Anh Vu, a single mother of three, was living in Bao Yen, North Vietnam, she received a flyer from the village head about the poverty reduction project," according to the complaint. "The police chief told her that it was a government program sponsored by the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, to recruit workers to go overseas to work. The Department of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs is a department of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, and directs each of Provincial Peoples' Committee (PPC).
"The flyer referred interested candidates to an labor export company called Tang Cong Ty Gia Day (Tang), located in Xuan Thuy, Cau Giay, Hanoi. Phuong Anh Vu was recruited by a woman at Tang named La Thanh Khoung, who informed her that she would be sent to Jordan, but that first, she needed to learn Chinese."
Vu says she already spoke Chinese but the defendants made her pay to attend Chinese classes for 3 months.
"Phuong Anh Vu was also charged another 1,000,000 dong to have a medical physical exam, another 1,000,000 for her passport, another 32,000,000 dong to pay the government to go work in Jordan, and other expenses totaling 2,000,000 to pay for food and lodging as she had to travel back and forth from Hanoi and her home. [The dong trades at about 21,000 to the dollar] Phuong Anh Vu mortgaged her house and land (worth about $53,000) as collateral to pay for these fees, totaling approximately 35,000,000 to 37,000,000 - the equivalent of $2,300, or five and half years of salary," according to the complaint.