Trafficked foreign laborers building U.S. Embassy in Iraq? Allegations of abuse and kidnappingAllegations of worker abuse and kidnapping by the First Kuwaiti Trading and Contracting Co., the contractor selected to build the U.S. embassy in Iraq, were flying today before members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Former American employees John Owens and Rory Mayberry testified that First Kuwait "kidnapped" foreign low-wage laborers to work on the $592 million construction project by lying to them about where they were going.
Workers from the Philippines, India, Pakistan and Sierra Leone were reportedly told they would be working in hotels in Dubai, not Baghdad.
Mayberry's testimony included:
"I was given my flight information to Baghdad. At this time, First Kuwaiti
managers asked me to escort 51 Filipino nationals to the Kuwaiti Airport and make sure they got on the same flight I was taking to Baghdad. Many of these Filipinos did not speak any English.
I wanted to help them make sure they got on their flight O.K., just as my managers had asked. We were all employees of the same company after all.
But when we got to the Kuwaiti Airport, I noticed that all of our tickets said we were going to Dubai. I asked why. A First Kuwaiti manager told me that because Filipino passports do not allow Filipinos to fly to Iraq, they must be marked as going to Dubai. The First Kuwaiti
manager added that I should not tell any of the Filipino they were being taken to Baghdad.
As I found out later, these men thought they had signed up to work in Dubai hotels. One fellow I met told me in broken English that he was excited to start his new job as a telephone repair man.
They had no idea they were being sent to do construction work on the U.S. Embassy."
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