Kil Loo See opened a garment factory, Daewoosa Samoa, Ltd., in Tafuna and recruited 313 workers from Vietnam and China. The factory produced clothes for Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, J.C. Penny and others. The workers signed three-year contracts that promised minimum wage. Kil Loo See, however, rarely paid the workers, threatened them with violence and deportation, withheld food and even beat them. Also, if they broke their contract and returned home early, they would face fines and their entire family would be blacklisted. The workers were in significant debt because they had to pay recruitment fees that were usually around $5,000. One worker lost her eye and another lost his hearing in his left ear after being beaten by a security guard under Kil Loo See's orders and most workers lost 18-25 pounds at the factory.
Location
American Samoa · Tafuna, American Samoa · 2008
(location generalized to protect survivors) Response & intervention
The Christian missionary notified law enforcement and the Department of Labor got involved, although Kil Loo See continued to run his factory even after they ordered him to improve conditions and give back pay. Eventually, the Department of Labor ordered that Kil Loo See pay $604,225 in back wages to the workers and embargoed his clothing shipments. He instead abandoned the factory completely, stranding hundreds of workers.
The workers asked for help from a Christian missionary who lived nearby. When he arrived at the factory, the security guards saw him approaching and began to beat the workers as punishment.
170 Vietnamese workers received safe haven from religious communities in the United States. The High Court of American Samoa awarded each worker $13,000 as compensation and J.C. Penny helped pay back the workers. In the end, out of the 313 workers, approximately 200 remained in American Samoa, 100 returned to Vietnam and 10 to China. Most workers have been blacklisted and are no longer able to find jobs with factories.
Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don't have a verifiable source on file yet — use “Report a problem” below to add one.