Court: Military Contractor Must Face Trial for Human Trafficking in Iraq

All too common

A federal court in Texas struck a blow last week to contractor KBR's attempt to thwart efforts to hold it accountable for labor trafficking in Iraq. After a review of the evidence, the court ordered that a case charging the former Halliburton subsidiary with human trafficking and forced labor proceed to trial.

The case, Ramchandra Adhikari v. Daoud & Partners, is brought by 12 Nepali men under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) against KBR and its Jordanian subcontractor, Daoud & Partners, for their participation in the trafficking and forced labor scheme. The ACLU and Yale Law School's Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Law clinic filed an amicus brief in support of the men.

Comments

[Dan]

How is this case being heard in a US court? How can nepali citizens in a crime that took place in iraq possibly have standing to bring a case in a US court?

I get that people want them held accountable for human trafficking, but this is ridiculous.

[Steve G]

Probably something along the lines of KBR being contracted by the US Govt. The location just happened to be Iraq.
Having been there, this doesn't entirely surprise me, but for some of the workers this was more money by far than they could earn at home. They're probably just pissed because they couldn't just quit and walk away if they didn't like washing GI's underwear