Nearly 100 Indian workers, who arrived in Washington on Thursday after marching 1,500 kms from New Orleans to protest "slave-like treatment" in a Mississippi shipyard, will meet Ambassador Ronen Sen to demand concrete steps to end abuses in the H2B guest worker visa programme.The workers, who quit the Signal International plant in Mississippi on March 6 revolting against "mistreatment" by their employer, said they will also hold a public meeting to describe their plight."We made this satyagraha to Washington, DC, to put an end to this system of modern-day slavery," said Sabulal Vijayan, a former Signal worker and member of the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity.On Wednesday the protesting workers said they were "harassed" by US Immigration authorities during their 1,500 km march that forced a one-day delay in their meeting with the Indian Ambassador."We were brave enough to break a major trafficking racket. We marched beyond secret surveillance by immigration.Now we will demand Ambassador Sen help initiate high-level talks between the US and Indian governments to protect future workers from our fate," he added in a press statement issued by the organisers of the 'March and the Meet'.The NGO groups and their officials representing the 100 Indian workers have said that a class action law suit has been filed in New Orleans focusing on anti-racketeering against Signal International, the American and Indian recruiters.The Department of Justice has opened a human trafficking investigation into the case and US Congressman George Miller has demanded detailed documentation about the case from Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao."The attempts to intimidate human trafficking survivors as they have walked in the footsteps of US freedom fighters have failed," said New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice director Saket Soni."Tomorrow we will demand that Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen take the epidemic of labor trafficking seriously, and help workers and advocates unmask the US federal guest worker programme as a legalised form of servitude," he added.Sen had cancelled his scheduled programme to meet the workers and their representatives.It is being pointed out that the Indian workers paid approximately USD 20,000 each to the US and Indian recruiters for permanent residency in the US and were instead held in forced labour by Signal International on ten-month temporary H2B guest worker visas in Gulf Coast shipyards "under deplorable conditions".Out of the 500 Indian workers about 100 are expected in Washington, more than 100 are still working at the Signal International plant in Mississippi and the fate of the remaining workers are not known. The workers, who arrived in Washington on Thursday, plan to remain in Washington DC for seven days, during which they hope to meet with key Congressional decision-makers on labour and immigration policy.
