Skip to main content

Visas for eleven victims of human trafficking

June 13, 2016

Eleven Filipino guest workers now have visas to work in the U.S. The workers, as one says, are "survivors" of human trafficking.

Earlier, they won a 15-million dollar judgment again L'Amande French Bakery. Their attorney says the Torrance and Beverly Hills bakeries are now closed.

With their families now by their side the workers spoke out about their ordeal. They say they were forced to work 17 hour days, at three dollars an hour. They say their boss humiliated them. After being lured from the Philippines they say they were told they owed their boss eleven thousand dollars.

Visas for eleven victims of human trafficking

Yanin Senachai, a staff attorney at Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles said "the employer held the workers as captive labor, not with the use of barbed wire and armed guard, but with more subtle forms of coercion, including forcing a significant debt on the workers and threatening to harm them in the home country."

Congressman Ted Lieu heard their story and intervened. Advancing Justice-LA helped them get T visas, also known as T Nonimmigrant Status. T visas provide victims of human trafficking temporary legal status and work authorization and allow them to bring their families to the U.S.to work in the U.S.

Advance Justice-LA is working to secure the judgment. Each worker would get about a million dollars.

Copyright 2016 FOX 11 Los Angeles: Download our mobile app for breaking news alerts or to watch FOX 11 News | Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Be a citizen journalist for FOX 11 and get paid – download the Fresco News App today.

Issues:Immigration