Tin Sokhavuth
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| Keo Ratha waits at his home in Pursat province for a phone call to tell him the latest news on his court case against Thai seafood companies. KT/ Mai Vireak |
A US judge has asked lawyers for two US-based seafood companies to appear in court on September 19 for a scheduling hearing after seven Cambodian nationals filed a civil lawsuit against four companies they say knowingly profited from companies which employed them in “slave-like” conditions.
The case, filed in June by lawyers for the seven Cambodians, names Phatthana Seafood and SS Frozen Food, two Thai seafood companies that export to US corporations, and Rubicon Resources LLC and Wales & Co Universe, two importers based in California which sell shrimp and fish to US outlets like Walmart.
In the complaint, the seven plaintiffs – two women and five men – say they were recruited by a local employment agency in Cambodia between 2010 and 2012. They were all sent to work at Phatthana Seafood in Thailand, where they say they were forced to endure conditions of “forced labor, involuntary servitude, and peonage.”
Lawyers for the companies, from law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, tried to have the case thrown out earlier this month on the grounds that the court had no jurisdiction to rule on cases concerning situations outside the US.
But attorneys for the seven Cambodians said the US Congress specifically added stipulations to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act that address instances precisely like theirs.
Agnieszka Fryszman, a lead attorney for the workers from Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, said traffickers often intentionally work across international borders.
“The 2008 amendment [to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act] intentionally covers just this type of conduct,” she told The Guardian newspaper last week.
The companies, she said, know about the exploitation occurring in factories within their supply chain because the US State Department and a number of human rights NGOs have released reports depicting this kind of abuse.
Judge John F. Walter has now asked both sides to present their case for why a trial should go forward, and he will decide whether the court has jurisdiction and enough evidence to rule on the case.
A hearing was scheduled for July 15, but lawyers for the four companies asked for an extension, claiming many of their clients were based in rural areas of Thailand without access to the internet. The judge then moved the hearing to August 10.
The US recently implemented a new law prohibiting the import and sale of products made using forced labor in Thailand, threatening sanctions against the country if more is not done to stop human trafficking and worker abuse.
Keo Ratha, one the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, previously told Khmer Times that he along with more than 200 Burmese nationals and Cambodians were working in a shrimp factory. The work was like being in hell, he said, because they had to work with dangerous chemical substances.
Some workers who asked the company to improve conditions were ignored so they escaped. They were forced to work from 7am to 9pm and were only allowed a one-hour break for lunch.
“In my mind, I thought that there would be a well-paying job so I could help my family and improve their lives, but after working for only a few days, I realized it was hopeless because I was forced to work with no break for a whole week and forced to work overtime,” he said.
Chhan Sothea, a 27-year-old Cambodian who worked for the same company and is a plaintiff in the case, spent almost two years at Phatthana Seafood.
“Do not treat us as the poor or animals. They must consider that we have the same rights,” he said.
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