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NEWSLETTER 17, December 2003 Garment
Factory Owner Convicted of Human Trafficking Workers
in American Samoa held in conditions of "involuntary servitude" |
In February 2003, in a court in Hawaii, Korean factory owner Kil Soo
Lee was found guilty on 14 of the 18 counts against him in the largest human trafficking
case ever investigated in the United States by the FBI and prosecuted by the Justice
Department. The US attorney general described the situation of workers at
Lee's Daewoosa Samoa factory, located in American Samoa, as "nothing less
than modern-day slavery." Lee faces life in prison for his conviction on
the trafficking charge. The FBI investigation in February 2001 revealed that upon
arrival in American Samoa, victims' passports were confiscated by company employees,
and they were forced to work to pay off smuggling fees of approximately $7,000.
Daewoosa employees used threats, intimidation, and physical force to maintain
control over the victims. Some female employees were sexually assaulted and forced
to work as prostitutes, and those who became pregnant were either forced to have
abortions or forced to return to Vietnam. Kil Soo Lee was arrested in March 2001.
When the factory shut down, leaving workers, mostly young women from Vietnam and
China, in a difficult position, an international solidarity campaign (supported
by the Clean Clothes Campaign) pressed for the brands producing at Daewoosa to
take action. The Daewoosa workers sewed clothing for Wal-Mart (Beach Cabana label),
Target (Pro Spirit label), Sears (David Taylor), David Peyser Sportswear (MV Sport),
J.C. Penney (Arizona) and other brands. In April 2002, the 270 Vietnamese
and Chinese former Daewoosa workers won a class-action suit against the factory.
The High Court of American Samoa ordered the factory to pay $3.5 million to the
workers. That amounts to an average award of $13,000 to each worker - more than
twice what many of them earned in a year at the factory. |
