...an illustrious history of lobbying against regulations on human trafficking... 'Nuff said

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Slave Labor building US Embassy in Baghdad?

Although the CSA isn't mentioned directly in the article referenced below, the reality of human trafficking and 'debt slavery' in building the US Embassy in Baghdad is spelled out. Contractors have been receiving US taxpayer dollars totrick people from India, Phillipines, and other countries into 'debt slavery' in Iraq. Please click through to the Asia Times article and read for yourself!

Worker ‘recruitment’ techniques, and work conditions, in the US-funded Baghdad embassy, mirror techniques of ‘debt slavery’, as described in Andrew Cockburn’s article “21st-Century Slaves” (National Geographic, Sept 2003).

Article on 'debt slaves' , Asia Times, Oct 27 2006 --
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HJ27Ak01.html -- David Phinney is a journalist and broadcaster based in Washington, DC. He can be contacted at phinneydavid@yahoo.com.

Are US taxpayers paying for slave labor to build an embassy in Baghdad? Two Americans, previously employed by “First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting, the lead builder for the new US$592 million US Embassy in Baghdad” describe practices that amount to ‘debt slavery’. David Phinney’s article describes workers from the Phillipines and India, who had been told they were going to work in Dubai, being taken instead to Baghdad, even though both countries had “banned or restricted their citizens from working in Iraq because of safety concerns and growing opposition to the war.”
“The Kuwait-headquartered, Lebanese-run company has billed several billion dollars on US contracts since the war began in March 2003. Much of its work is performed by cheap labor largely hired from South Asia, and the company has an estimated 7,500 foreign laborers in the theater of war.

”Now, with a highly secretive contract awarded by the US State Department, First Kuwaiti is in the midst of building the most expensive and heavily fortified embassy in the world. Scheduled to open next year, the sprawling complex near the Tigris River will equal Vatican City in size. “
[...]
“Some contractors, many working as subcontractors to Halliburton in Iraq, were found to be using deceptive, bait-and-switch hiring practices and charging recruiting fees that indebted low-paid migrant workers for many months or even years to their employers. Contractors were also accused of providing substandard, crowded sleeping quarters, serving poor food and circumventing Iraqi immigration procedures. “

Phinney's article gives further descriptions of workers’ treatment. US State Dept & DOD have investigated, a few procedural ‘corrections’ have been made (at least on paper).

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