US embassy workers said at risk of exploitation

[February 08, 2011]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- American embassies in Persian Gulf states are using contract laborers whose employers are illegally confiscating their passports and providing them with poor pay and living conditions, putting them at risk for exploitation, according to an internal State Department report released Monday.

The department's inspector general said contractors who supply gardeners, maids, cooks and local guards to embassies in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are engaged in practices that fall just short of violations of U.S. human trafficking laws.

More than three-quarters of the dozens of laborers at the embassies in question told investigators that they had to pay recruitment fees to get their jobs, which for more than 25 percent amounted to more than a year's salary.

All of the contractors surveyed held the passports of the workers, many of whom are from South and Southeast Asia, a practice that is barred in each of the four countries.

In addition, more than 70 percent of workers interviewed said they lived in overcrowded, unsafe or unsanitary conditions, with 20 occupying quarters with less personal space than that required by inmates at minimum security prisons in the United States.

The report said that while none of the embassies or contractors are technically violating U.S. laws aimed at preventing such abuses, steps should be taken to improve the working and living conditions of the workers.

[Associated Press; By MATTHEW LEE]

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