Feds sues Calif contractor, farms in Thai case

LOS ANGELES — A federal agency has sued a California-based labor contractor and farms in Washington and Hawaii, claiming the companies discriminated against more than 200 Thai workers in what authorities called the largest human trafficking case in the nation's agriculture industry.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the federal lawsuits Tuesday against Beverly Hills-based Global Horizons Inc. along with six farms in Hawaii and two in Washington.

Global Horizons lured Thai workers to the U.S. between 2003 and 2007 with promises of steady jobs and agricultural visas, then confiscated their passports and threatened to deport them if they complained about conditions, commission officials said.

The workers lived in dilapidated, rat-infested rooms — where many didn't have beds — and were often threatened and abused in the fields, according to the statement.

They also were isolated from non-Thai workers, who were believed to work under different conditions.

"Once they arrived here in the United States, the story of discrimination began," Anna Park, regional attorney for the EEOC in Los Angeles, said Wednesday in a statement announcing the legal action.

The statement called it the largest human trafficking case in agriculture to date but did not elaborate.

Global Horizons could not be immediately reached for comment because the phone numbers listed on its website were not working.

The EEOC is seeking back pay and damages for the workers. Attorneys said they could not estimate how much money was owed and expected the number of workers in the case would increase.

Global Horizons, which recruited Thai workers to come to the U.S. under the federal government's agricultural guest worker program, known as H-2A, subjected workers to intolerable conditions, while the farms turned a blind eye or failed to know about the practices of the contractor, the lawsuit states.

Chanchanit Martorell, executive director of the Thai Community Development Center, said her organization received its first report of abuse from a worker who escaped from a farm in Hawaii in 2003.

More workers came forward with similar claims about different farms that contracted with Global Horizons in different states, she said.