A reader sent me this revealing article about the H-2A system by Lornet Turnbull in the Seattle Times (2/20/05):"New state import: Thai farmworkers"
"The 170 Thai workers imported into the Yakima Valley to harvest apples and cherries last season were a curiosity in this part of the state where Latinos, not Asians, have been a familiar presence.
"The men, mostly poor farmers from rural Thailand, were the first foreign workers brought to Washington to pick fruit under a decades-old federal guest-worker program meant to fill labor shortages in agriculture. ...
And here's the bottom line: Thai cryptoslaves, excuse me, "temporary workers" have a "lower runaway rate."
"[Mordechai] Orian [the procurer] says he isn't whipsawing one group against another and in the past has brought workers from Mexico and Central America as well as Asia. He said the Thais have a lower runaway rate than the others and are more productive." [Emphasis mine]
A lower runaway rate. Have we come to this?
From yesterday's NYT:
A federal grand jury in Honolulu has indicted six labor contractors from a Los Angeles manpower company on charges that they imposed forced labor on some 400 Thai farm workers, in what justice officials called the biggest human-trafficking case ever brought by federal authorities.
The charges, prepared by Justice Department civil rights lawyers, were brought against the president, three executives and two Thai labor contractors from Global Horizons Manpower, which recruits foreign farm workers for the federal agricultural guest worker program, known as H-2A.
The indictment, which was unsealed Thursday in Hawaii, accuses Global Horizons executives of working to “obtain cheap, compliant labor” from guest workers who had been forced into debt in Thailand to pay fees to local recruiters. The company, according to the indictment, sought to “to compel the workers’ labor and service through threats to have them arrested, deported or sent back to Thailand, knowing the workers could not pay off their debts if sent home.”
The number of workers who are said to be victims is the largest ever in a human trafficking case, said Xochitl Hinojosa, a Justice Department spokeswoman.
... Since then, Ms. Martorell said, the center has identified 263 Thai guest workers who were brought to the United States on legal temporary visas by Global Horizons, but later fled what they described as oppressive conditions.
The indictment says recruiters in Thailand charged the workers — who earned as little as $1,000 a year farming in their home country — as much as $21,000 to obtain visas for the United States. Global Horizons did not disclose these fees to United States labor officials, the charges state.
Workers who were dispatched to a pineapple farm in Maui and orchards in Washington were paid far less than they had been promised, and were often housed in shoddy conditions, according to the charges; Global Horizons impounded their passports.
In recent weeks, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has issued findings against Global Horizons for civil rights violations, Ms. Martorell said. About 100 Thai workers have been granted residency visas for victims of human trafficking.
Swell. That will encourage Thais to avoid getting sucked into slavery -- you get a free green card out of it!
Among those facing charges are Mordechai Yosef Orian, president of Global Horizons, and Pranee Tubchumpol, director of international relations. Mr. Orian surrendered in Honolulu on Friday and pleaded not guilty, The Associated Press reported.
The AP's report is a little more colorful:
Orian appeared in Honolulu federal court with his ankles chained and wearing a blue collared shirt with gray pants. He was represented by a court-appointed attorney based on his contention that he couldn't afford one himself.
Orian, an Israeli national, faces a maximum sentence of 70 years imprisonment. He was ordered deported from the United States last year, but he has remained in the country during his appeal. The reason for his pending deportation is unknown.
U.S. Attorney Susan French called Orian's arrest "a major saga" because his public relations agency had told authorities varying stories that he was in Los Angeles, Texas and Albuquerque, N.M.
Authorities intended to arrest Orian when his plane arrived in Honolulu, but they later learned he had tried to "trick" authorities by boarding a separate flight, said French, an attorney with the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. They didn't know his whereabouts until he had already caught a taxi from the Honolulu airport.
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33 comments:
. . . said Xochitl Hinojosa, a Justice Department spokeswoman.
Xochitl Hinojosa? When did the Justice Department start hiring Aztec deities?
He said the Thais have a lower runaway rate than the others and are more productive.
In the movie "Misery", they revived a custom called hobbling that seemed to cure the problem of runaways.
I think the ancients would cut the Achille's Tendon, but our modern elites use systems of finance, taxes and debt.
Thilo Sarrazin, How Germany is commiting suicide by Islam
Material for a future post?
He's a donor to the GOP, btw.
And forget green cards for the Thais -- they should go 1600 on his ass and let them heave Mordechai into a cauldron to watch the flesh boil off from his bones.
He clearly suffers from hubris about how cunning he is. So they could also bait him into trying to escape the jailhouse by making a suggestive hole in his cell wall before he arrives, then have it lead into an arena where wild beasts suck out *his* blood before a jeering crowd.
That'll learn him to be so smug about his cunning.
Googling 'Xochitl Hinojosa' , I found a thread with this LULZ comment
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Temnota said...
Xochitl is the ancient Aztec goddess of DMV queues. Some older offices still have their "NOW SACRIFICING #114" signs.
Nick, thanks for the link; I acted accordingly.
I included this Nazi monster as well.
When it comes to the guest worker concept, Republicans are worse than the Democrats. Most Republicans talk tough on immigration but how they stand on guest workers seems to separate the phoneys from the sincere.
Why whine and complian about hispanics?
They are coming whther you lie or not. High birth rates+hard work ethic+ zest for life=bye bye white supremacy!
The guy is scum, but in the scheme of things, small fry.
Boeing has imported 100,000 of guest workers, depriving Americans of good wages as engineers and welders. Microsoft is notorious for abusing the H-1B visa system. Probably about 2/3rds of MS employees are H1-Bs.
But yes, good catch in the outlier is an arrow to show where the median is.
Steve S said:
A lower runaway rate. Have we come to this?
In AUS we have had repeated instance of Asian sex slave trafficking come to light in the press. Its not clear how much duress is place on the girls, but the whole industry relies on a form of bonded labour.
You might think that a liberal political leaders who claim to put civic morality on a higher standard would be leery of these practices. Not a bit, the practice goes on under some other name (457 visas or what not.)
Thats post-modern liberalism for ya, praises freedom, promotes slavery.
agnostic said..."And forget green cards for the Thais -- they should go 1600 on his ass and let them heave Mordechai into a cauldron to watch the flesh boil off from his bones."
You're so bloodthirsty. The man is already under orders of deportation. I say deposit him in international waters off the coast of Hawaii and let him think about how he's wronged others during his swim home.
My old employers sent shills onto F-news to tout a departure from the old view of "labor," then told managers they were looking for "soldiers." War is nothing but unlimited competition.
He had it coming.
as oppressive conditions.
The indictment says recruiters in Thailand charged the workers — who earned as little as $1,000 a year farming in their home country — as much as $21,000 to obtain visas for the United States.
I am writing this from Thailand and it seems to me that any Thai who can come up with $21,000 is hardly a poor farmer.
The guy is scum, but in the scheme of things, small fry.
Right, Whiskey. It's a shame how they come down hard on this poor, innocent Israeli businessman, and meanwhile the WASP Harvard mafia is getting away with murder.
Orian, an Israeli national...
coulda guessed.
...faces a maximum sentence of 70 years imprisonment.
What happened to those Rabbis in NY who were trafficking human parts? That kinda dissapeared down the memory hole. I wonder how the press would have taken care of the story had it been Catholic priests trafficking organs?
Abe Fauxman, from one of your links this insightful bit:
Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, lambasted the commissioner. “What sort of environment allows such remarks to be made openly by a senior politician?” he said.
What Kantor is bitching about is that the European environment has not been sufficiently stifled yet with press-hounding, career-destruction, character-assassination, thought-control, even outright murder, and of course outfits like ADL and $PLC. The US has been sufficiently sterilized so that hacks like Kantor can get away with has bigoted shit. What De Gucht sed sounds perfectly reasonable and fact-based to me. Pity he apologized and gave the bigots the upper hand again.
I am writing this from Thailand and it seems to me that any Thai who can come up with $21,000 is hardly a poor farmer.
I'm no longer in Thailand, but borrowing and selling off land existed when I was there, including among the poor.
There are lots of Thai and other foreign workers in Israel, too. I wonder how well they're treated.
They're not on any path to citizenship. That much I know.
"Xochitl Hinojosa, a Justice Department spokeswoman"
i see others have already commented about this, but...damn.
the US is in deep, deep long term trouble.
Steve, as usual you don't understand. It's not slavery because we're doing it for their own good!
As true now as it was in the 1820s.
Anonymous said..."I am writing this from Thailand and it seems to me that any Thai who can come up with $21,000 is hardly a poor farmer."
Apparently, the Thais signed an agreement to work off that $21,000 after they got to the U.S. in the belief that they'd easily be able to pay off their debt and then start making big money.
From the article: "...guest workers who had been forced into debt in Thailand to pay fees to local recruiters. The company, according to the indictment, sought to 'to compel the workers’ labor and service through threats to have them arrested, deported or sent back to Thailand, knowing the workers could not pay off their debts if sent home.”
"Thats post-modern liberalism for ya, praises freedom, promotes slavery."
So very true. Though here in the US I think many Republicans like the guest worker/slave system too..
Good catch on the 'runaway rate' quote Steve. The MSM never comments on that side of things.
Immigration.......our "peculiar institution".
".......said Xochitl Hinojosa, a Justice Department spokeswoman."
"Among those facing charges are Mordechai Yosef Orian, president of Global Horizons, and Pranee Tubchumpol, director of international relations."
I was initially under the impression that this story was about America, but I was mistaken. It seems to be about a foreign country.
There is no America anymore - it is becoming nothing more than an alien bazaar, where people from around the world come to buy and sell.
Whiskey writes: The guy is scum, but in the scheme of things, small fry.
My response: It's apparently the "largest human trafficking case in U.S. history." How is it "small fry?"
My response: It's apparently the "largest human trafficking case in U.S. history." How is it "small fry?"
You're supposed to dismiss it coz it involves an Israeli, aka, Jew, and they per definition are moral people and do not indulge in immoral business practices, something about being a light unto the nations and all that.
@Tom V
"There are lots of Thai and other foreign workers in Israel, too. I wonder how well they're treated."
Well. if they don't mind working every day, except for 4 annual days off, and being accommodated in a chicken coop, not that bad.
The Hawaiian establishment is up in arms (over the arrest of this guy, not the slave labor).
Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, lambasted the commissioner. “What sort of environment allows such remarks to be made openly by a senior politician?” he said.
The sort of environment in Israel, it looks like.
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Illegal African immigration is a serious threat to Israel's Jewish and democratic character, Benjamin Netanyahu said.
"We have become almost the only First World country that can be reached by foot from the Third World," Netanyahu said Thursday in an address to the Manufacturers Association of Israel. "We are flooded with a surge of refugees who threaten to wash away our achievements and damage our existence as a Jewish democratic state."
Netanyahu said the thousands of African and other migrant workers who have infiltrated to Israel from Egypt "are causing socio-economic and cultural damage and threaten to take us back down to the level of the Third World. They take the jobs of the weakest Israelis."
Somebody tell Dr. Moshe Kantor, quick!
This is what they do in Israel. They bring in SE Asian agricultural workers who are treated in ways that would be frowned upon in the US. And there is absolutely no mechanism by which they can gain Israeli citizenship or permanent residency. They actually have to sign a contract that says they cannot have sex with Israelis. The Arab gulf states do something similar minus the sex part.
Google "site:il Thai abuse" and read countless horror stories of forced labor, rape, stolen passports, intimidation, and imprisonment in Israel. The abuse of Thai workers was pioneered in Israel as the stories stretching back almost 20 years make clear.
When you put the internationally renowned obnoxious, aggressive freier-loathing Israeli personality (see "sabra") in charge of thousands of shy, retiring, conflict avoidant Oriental peasants, and top that with an insurmountable language barrier (does a Hebrew to Thai dictionary even exist?) and the fact that the peasants are Gentiles (Bnei Noach, or lower caste human beings) you have a recipe for ruthless exploitation. How many Thai-speaking labor investigators/social workers/home health nurses do we have in America (or Israel)? Three? Five?
Motty Orian et fils pioneered Thai exploitation in Israel to do the work Jews won't do (forget all the cutesy romantic man-of-the-soil kibbutznik stuff you ever learned). And after bad press in Israel, he trained his sights on America. What Motty Orian has done is transplant the worst of Medieval peasant exploitation to America. He is recreating the traditional slavemaster/peasant relationships that worked for Jews in Poland and the Ukraine (up until 1648, that is) by importing the weakest, most defenseless and exploitable workers he can. Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait are the same in this.
But we do not have to go along with it in our country. We do not have a caste hierarchy and inevitable exploitation as a fundament of our culture as they do and should resist it at all costs.
Well, someone has to be a devil's advocate... Here's grist for the mental mill.
1. Every society throughout history, until just the recent blip of the past 200 years, had slavery. It seems pretty ingrained in human nature.
2. Even our present society did not do away with slavery. Who do you think made your shirts? Yes, the regional potentate signs off on a "no slave labor" guarantee, but when you're selling a 2-cent dress for $75, there's not much incentive to investigate the truth behind a document accepted as perfectly legal by all the governments concerned.
A good part of our manufacturing and commerce is done by slaves. But they're overseas. Importing them here is merely an old-is-new wrinkle.
3. America was built, in important part, by indentured servants. Many of the people - white people, including my ancestors - who won passage to the New World did it that way. Not much different from the green-card hopeful in this story.
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