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Lawsuit: Major U.S. defense contractor engaged in human trafficking

Tuesday, September 2, 2008 Free Headline Alerts

WASHINGTON — A leading U.S. defense firm in Iraq is the target of a lawsuit filed by the families of men from Nepal who were taken hostage and executed by an Al Qaida group in Iraq.

KBR, formerly known as Kellogg, Brown and Root, has been sued in federal district court in California. The suit asserted that former employees had been victims of human trafficking by KBR — at one point the largest contractor for the U.S. military in Iraq — and its Jordanian subcontractor, Daoud & Partners.

The suit, filed on Aug. 27 by relatives of the employees, said KBR and Daoud abducted Nepali nationals in Jordan and forced them to work in Iraq. In 2004, 13 Nepali men, ages 18 to 27, were sent to a U.S. military facility in Iraq soon after they arrived in Amman for what they thought were jobs in hotels and restaurants in the Jordanian capital.

"Once they arrived in Jordan, however, they were not provided the expected employment," Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, a Washington law firm that filed the suit, said. "Instead, their passports were seized, they were held against their will, and they were told that they were being sent to work at a military facility in Iraq, the United States Al Asad Airbase. The men allege that the illicit trafficking scheme — from their recruitment in Nepal to their eventual employment in Iraq — was engineered by KBR and its subcontractor Daoud."

In Iraq, the suit said, the Nepali workers were captured by an Al Qaida-aligned group, Ansar Al Sunna. Twelve of the Nepalis were held hostage and later executed. The remaining Nepali, identified as Buddi Prasad Gurung, arrived at the U.S. military facility in Iraq and was forced to work in a warehouse for 15 months until he was allowed to return home.

Gurung joined the families of the Nepali victims to file suit against KBR and Daoud under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and Alien Tort Claims Act. In 2008, the U.S. Labor Department ordered Daoud, with offices in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, to pay $1 million to the families of 11 of the victims.

"KBR has not seen the lawsuit so it is premature for us to comment at this time," the company said in a statement. "The safety and security of all employees and those the company serves remains KBR's top priority. The company in no way condones or tolerates unethical or illegal behavior."

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