Jackson Free Press

A group of about 70 Indian workers marched onto the Mississippi State Capitol Thursday, March 20, protesting treatment by Pascagoula construction company Signal International, LLC.

"These people endured a kind of slavery," said Saket Soni, director of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice. "That is really the word for it."

Former Signal workers, many of them from Bombay, claim they were promised well-paying jobs and citizenship by recruiters back in India.

"A (recruiter company) called Dewan Consultancies promised us permanent residency and green cards. The cost to us was $15,000 to $20,000," said Sabulal Vijayan through a translated statement.

Many of the workers sold their homes or relinquished mortgages back in India and came to America, only to find themselves living in a Pascagoula "man-camp" and stuck with H2B visas, which are only good as long as the worker holds his assigned job.

Workers say the employers knew that they needed only to fire the workers to get them deported, keeping complaints at a minimum.

Workers had plenty of reasons to complain, however.

"The living spaces were 36 by 24 feet, and there were 24 beds to the room. ... For 24 people there were two (toilets) and four showers. For this degrading accommodation they deducted $1,050 per month from our paychecks," Vijayan said.

Attempts to reason with Signal employers often resulted in termination and immediate deportation, according to Soni.

Frustrated, the workers walked off their jobs on March 5 and subsequently reported the human trafficking to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Soni said the workers did not go through local authorities.

"We can never tell when the local authorities, the sheriff or police are working with the employers," he said.

The workers intend to march on to other locations, eventually working their way to Washington, D.C., to take their complaints to U.S. lawmakers.

Representatives of Signal's Pascagoula office could not be reached for comment.

The company's Web site claims it resorted to H2B workers in 2006 to shore up a "chronic labor shortage" triggered by Hurricane Katrina.

The Web site also claims it currently has 300 guest workers on the payroll as full-time employees, and houses the employees at an on-site facility.