US Accused Of Using Slave Labor At Military Camps In Iraq

The men from southern Kerala state paid 75,000 rupees (1,700 US dollars) each for visas to Kuwait last August. They were cheated by employment agents and landed in Baghdad.

One man, Hameed, said they were taken to a US military camp in Mosul where they were told that they had been bought to work in the kitchen, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

“We were slaves in the American kitchens. We barely got two hours of sleep. Any slip-ups and we were tortured for days,” Hameed said.

While Hameed alleged they were often used as shields when Iraqi militia attacked their camp, his brother Shahjahan said they were forced to cook pork despite being Muslim.

The men said they were not allowed to call or write home, but were told 12,000 rupees (268 US dollars) would be sent to India every month. They got their chance to escape when their camp was attacked at the end of April. An Iraqi truck driver took them to Baghdad from where they travelled to Fallujah, Jordan, Doha, finally arriving in Bombay on April 28.

In a separate incident, two Indians died and another was injured in an attack on a US base, where they were working as security guards, the Indian Express newspaper reported.

The Indian government has expressed concern about the estimated 1,500 Indian ex-servicemen who were sent to Iraq through private security agencies, and is considering a law to regulate the agencies.

External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha has said the government would probe how these men were sent to Iraq, despite a ban on people going to Iraq .

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