U.S. Must Work to End Human Trafficking, Modern-Day Slavery on Government Contracts
In 2004, Buddhi Prasad Gurung, a young man wishing to provide a better life for his family, left his village in Nepal for Jordan, where local labor recruiters had falsely promised him work in five-star hotels and restaurants…Upon arrival, the lucrative jobs in the luxury hotels did not materialize. Instead, his passport was seized, and he was transported against his will to Iraq to work for a U.S. government subcontractor called Daoud & Partners…Gurung and the families of the Nepali victims sued KBR [Kellogg Brown & Root] and Daoud in federal court for trafficking and forced labor…In September 2012, the Obama administration signed an Executive Order setting out new requirements to prevent trafficking and forced labor of anyone serving under government contracts…We hope this lawsuit and the new regulations will ensure that the U.S. government contracting process is no longer complicit in modern-day slavery.