Waiting in the cold
On November 10, 2006, in Central city, Louisiana, 29 year old Saket Soni, labor organizer and the founder of Resilience Force, sat in the cold of the night, in an unheated car on an unlit street in a city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. It was his birthday, and he was waiting for someone – a human smuggler.
In the The Great Escape, Soni, narrates a tale of human trafficking that is heart-breaking yet one of great fortitude and resolve. It is an account of 500 migrant Indian workers forced into modern day slavery to work for Signal International, a US Gulf Coast shipbuilding and restoration company based in the state of Louisiana.
Migrant workers become indentured laborers
The sinister story is based on true events surrounding the trafficking of 500 migrant Indian workers in the United States who were brought from India for skilled or semi-skilled jobs and then made to work as indentured laborers. The book is gripping from the first few pages; the chapters are short and they quickly throw the reader into the harrowing depths of the individual stories and hardships encountered by the migrant workers forced to work in dangerous conditions repairing and restoring oil rigs damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
The lure of green cards
The narrative is relayed with such sincerity that each person’s story tugs at your heart and gives a great insight into the problem of trafficking and bonded labor prevalent in the United States today. The workers were brought in legally on H2B visas, which is a temporary 10-month visa, leading the reader to wonder how these migrants who came with legal visas were trafficked. Soni clarifies, however, that the lure that was used to get these workers into the US was not temporary in nature. They were assured of a job and misled into believing that green cards would be arranged which would convert their temporary jobs into permanent ones upon entering the US, and enable them to bring their families to live in the US.
In abysmal living conditions
How these workers were coerced and trapped into forced labor with abysmal living conditions is both a fascinating and an astonishing story. Soni paints a vivid and disturbing picture of their squalid living conditions: packed like a can of sardines – twenty four workers to a single trailer – having to wait in long lines to use the restrooms and showers, to share leaking and torrid bathrooms with stench so unbearable and the hygiene so poor that the workers often fell sick. The food served was not just meager, it was unpalatable and often not cooked through.
A dangerous assignment
Working at Signal International for refitting, welding and restoring pipes for oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina was an arduous and dangerous task. It required technical knowledge and skill as well as concentration on the job because of the precarious and dangerous nature of the work. Their squalid living conditions only added to the dangers of the situation they faced.
Imprisoned and guarded
Tall fences kept the workers imprisoned and prevented their escape. The entrances were guarded and they couldn’t leave the premises without permission. Even their trips to the nearest Walmart for groceries were supervised and restricted to an hour.
The modus operandi
The book details how the trafficking was carried out with the compliance of an immigration attorney in the US and a partner that liaised with companies that required temporary workers, and ICE. An agency in India that lured these workers to work in the US, at the same time extracted large sums of money amounting to $20,000 from these migrant workers to secure a visa to work in the US with a guarantee of a green card. To cough up such a huge sum, they took loans, mortgaged their parents’ home, took jewelry belonging to their wives and mothers, and sold whatever little assets they had with the hope of earning it all back once they reached the promised land of opportunities.
On arrival, they were herded into buses from the airport to the facility. In order to hide their shame the workers lied to their families back home about their living conditions and well being, painting a rosy picture because they just couldn’t get themselves to disappoint their families with the reality of their unlivable conditions.
Awaaz Do, Hum Ek Hain!
The story, however, is not just about victimization, it is also about heroic resolve and redemption on the part of Saket Soni. With the clarion call of “Awaaz Do, Hum Ek Hain”, Soni orchestrates the ‘great escape’ with several months of careful planning. However, escaping the facility – momentous though it is – becomes just the starting point in their long and arduous battle for justice.
The Great Escape does not have just one protagonist; every single one of these migrant workers is a human being with a personal story of hope, struggle, adversity and redemption. The author describes who they were, who they are, the life they lived with their wives, their children, their aging parents before they took the leap of faith to come to the United States for a better life.
It is a remarkable story and the author in his narrative brings out the strengths of character, the weaknesses, the vulnerabilities and the desperations of human beings, each with a name and a personal story. The Great Escape by Saket Soni is a must read!
Read more about Saket Soni at SALA 2023.