Indians in US end hunger strike

Indian workers who have accused a US company and its recruiters of human trafficking ended their 29-day hunger strike in Washington on Thursday with a rally outside the US Justice Department which said it will meet them next week.

Over 50 of the over 100 workers, who walked away from their jobs at a Mississippi oil rig company in March this year and now face deportation, chanted slogans and held up enlarged checks they allegedly wrote out to recruiters on a false promise of permanent residency.

The workers claimed that they had received support from several lawmakers including Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who along with 17 of his colleagues sent a letter to the Department of Justice urging legal protections for the workers while it investigates their case.

Justice Department spokeswoman Jamie Hais said the civil rights office will meet workers' representatives next week and officials will reply to the letter.

"Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act because we recognised that modern day slavery exists and that workers trafficked into the United States should be able to place their faith in the United States justice system," Kucinich said at the rally.

"Today, we must make sure we don't betray their faith in us," he said.

The guest workers claim that about 500 of them were duped into coming to the US under the H2B visa to work for Signal International, a marine and fabrication company in Mississippi but were forced to live under inhuman conditions, a charged denied by the company.

The workers, who were camping outside the Indian Embassy, are demanding that they be allowed to stay in the country till the department investigates their claims, the companies involved be barred from visa programmes and that the US and Indian governments discuss the issue.