Indians in the 'Land of the Free' .......

 

 (Reuters) - A federal agency has sued over unequal treatment of more than 500 workers from India recruited to work at shipyards in Mississippi and Texas, officials said on Wednesday. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission contends the workers were forced to live in substandard housing and exploited with fees, to the point where some had net earnings of nearly nothing. The EEOC said the treatment of the Indian workers amounted to human trafficking, even though they were brought to the country with work visas. "Foreign workers should be treated as equals when working in the United States, not as second-class citizens," said Olophius Perry, district director for the EEOC Los Angeles district office. The workers earned about $8.50 to $9.50 an hour, but many of them were forced to pay recruitment fees of between $12,000 and $25,000, EEOC officials said. Some of the workers had to take out high interest loans or mortgage their ancestral lands and they were charged for lodging and food, officials said. "They were nickeled and dimmed to the point where they really didn't have any pay," said Anna Park, regional attorney for the EEOC Los Angeles office. Also, workers had their passports taken and were threatened with deportation if they complained, officials said. Some of them were forced to live in crowded conditions amid rats and insects, according to the EEOC. Workers of other nationalities were not subject to the same kind of treatment, Park said. In the case of these 500 Indian workers, the EEOC alleged in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in Mississippi that Gulf Coast marine services company Signal International LLC subjected the welders and pipe-fitters to segregated facilities and discriminatory treatment. The Indian men paid recruiters up to $20,000 to come to the United States, and when they arrived at Signal shipyards in late 2006 and early 2007, they were forced to pay rent for crowded housing in fenced labor camps, according to the EEOC. In some cases, 24 men shared a trailer with only two toilets, the EEOC said. A Signal International LLC representative did not return calls. In the cases of Indian workers, the EEOC has sued under the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, and it is seeking back pay, compensatory damages and injunctive relief to prevent future discrimination.