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Thais Receive Compensation and Visas in Los Angeles Human Trafficking Case

A group of Thais brought to the United States by a suspected labor trafficker accused of forcing them to live in squalor while working for little or no pay will be compensated under a consent decree reached between the federal government and a Northern California steel company.

"No amount of money can compensate for what we have today, which is our freedom, our family and justice," said Sathaporn Pornsrisirisak, one of the victims. "Although I have seen the worst of America, I have also seen the best that this country has to offer, such as laws that can bring about justice for people who are so powerless and exploited that you can't imagine exists."

Details of the settlement were announced Friday at a federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. Most of the Thai nationals will receive up to $7,500 as part of the deal, according to Chancee Martorell, executive director of the Thai Community Development Center, which reported the alleged abuse.

The discrimination case was investigated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of 48 Thais who were subjected to human trafficking and slavery, authorities said.

"These workers were forced to live in cramped apartments without water, electricity or gas," said Anna Park, an attorney with the commission. "They had no light, they had no heat. They were constantly threatened with arrest and any attempts to escape they were told that the police and immigration would come and take them away."

A total of 49 Thai nationals were recruited by Yoo Taik Kim, who was tapped by Trans Bay Steel Corp. of Napa, Calif., to find welders, Martorell said. Kim managed to bring the Thais to the United States in December 2002 but he took away their passports, authorities said. "Mr. Kim recruited these workers and made all these false promises for things that never materialized," Martorell said. "They lived in horrible conditions and worked for hardly nothing."

Ten people were hired to work on the Bay Bridge retrofit by Trans Bay, a manufacturer of hinge pipe beams. Others worked in two Thai restaurants owned by Kim in the Los Angeles area. The restaurant workers were kept in safe houses where they slept on floors and were given scraps of food, Martorell said. Some of them were paid about $200 over three months, despite working seven days a week, 10 hours a day, she said.

It wasn't until one of them escaped and went to the Thai community center that an investigation was launched. The two restaurants were later closed and one of the Thai nationals has returned home. Kim's attorney, Dan Marmalefsky, told The Associated Press he had just learned about the accusations and his client was innocent. Kim, who is Korean but lived in Thailand and speaks the language, does not own any restaurants and did not take anyone's passport, he said.

Kim was helping out an acquaintance at Trans Bay who asked him to use his contacts with the Thai government to find some qualified welders, Marmalefsky said. "When Trans Bay didn't follow through on its commitments, Mr. Kim on his personal expense offered the workers free housing, provided them with food and brought them to the Thai embassy to help them," he said. "He tried to do a good deed and this is his reward I guess."

Authorities say they are still looking for Kim, who also has a business in San Jose. A man identified by Marmalefsky as Kim called on a cell phone in Los Angeles Friday and said he had never been contacted by anyone on the matter. He said he only learned of the accusations through an article in the Korean press after returning to California from a recent trip.

"I didn't do anything wrong," said Kim, adding that he did not receive any money from Trans Bay. A representative of the EEOC did not immediately return telephone calls.

Trans Bay has paid $64,000 in back pay to eight of 10 workers. The company also has given full-time jobs to some of the workers and found them housing, while others have received visas to remain in the U.S. or have immigration applications pending. Trans Bay "felt it should step up and do what it could to make the situation right," said attorney Doug Smith, who estimates the company has paid more than $500,000 in the case.

The real culprit, Smith contends, is Kim, who he alleges was paid by Trans Bay. Smith claimed the workers hired by Trans Bay were supposed to be paid about $18.80 an hour by Kim, but it turned out they were given only $6.75. Trans Bay broke its contract with Kim in mid-2003, Smith said.

"The company got completely swindled," he said. "It perceives itself as a victim of fraud by someone who turned out to be a labor trafficker."

Adapted from: Gred Risling.  "Thai workers get money, visas in LA human trafficking settlement." Mercury News. 8 December 2006.