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SALT LAKE CITY -- Federal investigators continue to build a case against a Los Angeles-based company charged with forced labor violations of Thai workers.
The indictment alleges four employees with the labor recruiting company Global Horizons Manpower Inc. and two Thailand-based recruiters lured 400 workers from Thailand to work on farms across the United States. Six recruiters are accused in this case that the FBI calls the largest human-trafficking case ever charged in U.S. history.
Pai Boon's story
They told us not to make any trouble. I knew right from the beginning that I didn't want to complain, so I just toughened up.
–Pai Boon
Some of those Thai farmers worked on southern Utah farms between 2005 and 2007. Pai Boon was one of them. He felt lucky to have the chance to live and work in America.
Speaking through a translator, he tells KSL, "I thought wow; I get to work in America. I'm making this much money."
Slave labor typically starts with money changing hands. "I almost lost all of my money," says Boon. "Altogether 750,000 bat, a lot of that from private lending."
That's roughly $25,000 Pai Boon paid recruiters to work in the U.S. He left his wife and two kids in Thailand and flew to Seattle, Wash.
"The first thing they did upon arrival at the airport," says Boon, "they took away our travel documents and passports."
Boon says he thought it was strange but when he asked why they would take his travel documents, he was told it was for "safe keeping."
While in Seattle, Boon worked on an apple orchard. He shared his new home with 21 men.
"A typical day began with getting up at 2 or 2:30 in the morning," he explains, "to ensure that I get to use the kitchen to prepare food and also to use the bathroom because there are so many people living in the house."
Soon his recruiters transferred him to Utah to work on farms in Beaver and Milford, where things would become worse.
"I soon realized that the people who brought us here, the company that brought us here, did not live up to their promises," he says.
While in Thailand, Boon signed a three year contract. Even though times got tough, he wanted to honor that commitment.
"They told us not to make any trouble. So I knew right from the beginning that I didn't want to complain," says Boon. "So I just toughen it up."
His wife and children depended on his wages to survive in Thailand. At one point, they thought he'd never make it home alive.
"They were so concerned that I might be killed," says Boon. When asked if he was afraid for his life, Boon explains, "They had my travel documents and they could do anything to me if they wanted to."
On southern Utah farms, Boon further endured cramped living quarters and was kept isolated from the community. When he worked on the pig farm in Beaver, Boon says he was not allowed to go to Salt Lake City to get specialty food - a little reminder of home. "They said, ‘If you want Asian food we'll order it from Las Vegas,'" he says.
Boon explained he thought it was strange how "they always emphasize don't go out and meet people, especially Asians," he says, "because if you meet them, they'll cause trouble."
He also went weeks at a time without pay.
"There was a great deal of problem with pay," says Boon. "They say OK, we schedule to pay this Friday. Nothing would come."
Boon said he's worked in countries like Taiwan, Singapore, and Israel under contract as a farm hand or factory worker but working conditions here in America were the worst.
Boon explains, "For example, the pay in other countries where I worked, the companies or the employers would pay us directly. Unlike here [in America] the employer would pay the recruiting company and they'd pay us."
Utah as a destination
Anti-human trafficking activists say Pai Boon's story is typical. The misconception among Americans is that labor trafficking only happens overseas. The reality is human trafficking has infiltrated into Utah homes in cities like Bountiful, Salt Lake, and Sandy.
"Utah is a destination place for trafficking. It's a state that traffickers traffick their victims through," says Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Parkinson. "It's also a place where people are recruited and then taken elsewhere."
They don't always come from a dark alley or a warehouse or some dungeon in a basement. It's in a home just like yours. It's in your neighborhood.
–Gina Bellazetin
Parkinson heads the Utah Human Trafficking Task Force, which reports 56 labor slaves in the past two years. But Parkinson also says there are hundreds more out there hidden in Utah homes.
"Because it's so underground and people think that this is such a safe community," explains Parkinson. "Maybe they aren't looking for indicators that other people would be concerned with."
Immigrants tend to be easy targets, a great concern for the Utah Human Trafficking task force.
"Because of the natural vulnerability that comes from maybe being illegally here in this country, they're in their natural fear that traffickers prey on," he says.
Regardless of immigration status, Parkinson said the task force focuses on the perpetrators of human trafficking.
"We realize the legal status of that victim is often what brings that person into that victimization," explains Parkinson. "The perpetrator realizes they can prey on that status and threaten them with calling INS or other things in order to get them to perform some type of labor whether it's sex-based or otherwise," he says.
Parkinson assures immigrants, regardless of status, that they can feel safe to report abuse because "there are provisions set up to make sure that the person is protected as far as legal status goes."
"It's a little complicated, but the law recognizes that person can be protected and so can come forward courageously and work with law enforcement to bring the perpetrator to justice," Parkinson says.
Rescuing victims in Utah
Many of victims of human trafficking are rescued through the Utah Health & Human Rights Project.
"The cases that we have, they don't always come from a dark alley or a warehouse or in some dungeon in a basement," explains Gina Bellazetin with UHHR. "It's not. It's in a home just like yours. It's in your neighborhood."
Bellazetin also said traffickers use intimidation and isolation to hold their victims captive.
"All the cases are impacting," explains Bellazetin. "The suffering of these people is unlike any other type of suffering."
Bellazetin says as Utahns begin to accept the reality that human trafficking could be happening in their neighborhoods, they could save someone from a life of bondage.
As for Pai Boon, he works for a roofing company now with a "T" visa given to trafficking victims. His working conditions are better now.
"It's like night and day," says Boon. "I like to go to work on time and leave on time. It's great for me."
E-mail: niyamba@ksl.com
