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Forced Labor in Pascagoula, Mississippi (2008)

A forced labor case from 2008 in Pascagoula, Mississippi, United States. 1 source on file.

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What happened

Close to 500 guestworkers from India were trafficked to the US through the H-2B program to work in Signal International's shipyards after Hurricane Katrina, lured by false promises of lawful permanent residency. Recruiters held their passports and visas, coerced them into paying extraordinary fees and threatened them with serious harm; in the US they were required to live in Signal's guarded, overcrowded labor camps.

Response and intervention

Outcome: The lawsuit was filed in March 2008. In February 2015 a jury ordered Signal and its representatives to pay $14 million to five of the workers, the largest jury award in a labor trafficking case.

Forced Labor2007

Pascagoula, Mississippi, United States, 2007

United States US

There was a 3:00 am raid of the Signal International Shipyard worker's trailers by the Signal Security Guards telling everyone they would be deported. A brave worker made a frantic phone call to the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice because of the incident. Some workers were held hostage in the TV room of the shipyard while all the workers struggled with the idea of suicide rather than returning in debt to their families and facing Indian Aid Debt.

Needs a sourceArchive 2008–2016
CSEC2006

Pensacola, Florida, United States, 2006

United States US

A typical 16-year-old in a middle-class home in suburban Pensacola, Fla., Shauna Newell’s nightmare began innocently enough: A new friend she had met in high school asked her to come to her home for a sleepover. Newell’s mother, Lisa Brant, didn’t like the idea, but after weeks of lobbying by her daughter, Brant met with the girl and the man she said was her father to make sure her daughter would be safe. But the girl’s “father” was really a convicted felon, and the girl, who had a record of prostitution in Texas, was an accomplice in the abduction. “Her dad took us to this house and said he'd be right back and he left us there,” Newell recounted in a taped interview. “And I asked for some water because I was thirsty. And I drank the water and I blacked out.” The water had been laced with a drug. When she woke up, Newell was groggy and couldn’t move. “My legs were being held down, and the guy that was raping me was holding my hands back,” she said in a quiet voice. “I kept screaming, ‘Stop, please don't do this. Leave me alone.’ But I was so weak, I couldn't fight them off. Like I was, I was so really out of it. And I blacked out a few times and I kept coming back to. And I was still being raped every time I woke up.” Left alone for a moment, Newell managed to call her mother. “My cell phone rang. And all I heard was, ‘Mommy, help me,’ ” Brant said. “And the phone went dead. And I freaked!”

Needs a sourceArchive 2008–2016
Sex Trafficking2010

Arabi, Louisiana, United States, 2010

United States US

In April 2008, a NOLA vice unit was driving around in an unmarked car when Ricky Womack and an "unidentified white female" were seen flagging down cars. They stopped and he offered the girl as a prostitute to the plain-clothed cops for $100. Womack only allowed sexual liaisons to occur in his motel room so that he could protect the girl. The police officers found a "contract" handwritten by the girl in the motel room: 'I do solemnly swear to give Ricky Womack the next five years of my life. I promise never to cheat, lie, or betray him.' The detectives learned the girl was a teenage runaway from Arkansas whom Womack had lured to New Orleans.

3 sourcesArchive 2008–2016