Accidental Blogger

In 2008, I had reported on the unlawful exploitation of foreign workers during the rebuilding efforts in Louisiana following Katrina. It seems that the practice is quite common and the financial and physical abuse  is sometimes aided by the governments of the countries from where the workers are imported by US companies.

GALVESTON — A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court seeks more than $200 million in damages from companies accused of the human trafficking of Vietnamese laborers to the United States to unknowingly work as indentured servants.

Attorneys Anthony Buzbee and Tammy Tran filed the lawsuit in Galveston federal court to “expose an international human trafficking conspiracy,” the lawsuit claims.

Nine of the 12 men named as plaintiffs live in Galveston County. The others, including 43 unnamed men, reside in Louisiana and Texas.

The lawsuit accuses Hanoi, Vietnam, companies International Investment Trade and Service Group, known as Interserco, and General Automotive Industry Corp. of Vietnam, known as Vinamotors, of engaging in a human trafficking ring with U.S. “co-conspirators,” Coast to Coast Resources and ILP Agency.

Coast to Coast and ILP were sued in March 2009 in Harris County district court after two years of litigation, and an agreed judgment of $60 million was entered, the lawsuit claims.

 The full story from Houston.