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The United States only started monitoring human trafficking in 1994 and it was only then that various laws against human trafficking were passed in the country. However, despite have laws, human trafficking is still occurring in the United States and many other countries.

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A federal judge in Hawaii last week sentenced Kil Soo Lee, the former owner of an American Samoa garment factory, to 40 years in prison for involuntary servitude and trafficking, ending one chapter in the largest such case ever prosecuted on U.S. soil.

U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway on June 22 also ordered the South Korean businessman to pay $1.8 million in restitution to about 300 Vietnamese and Chinese nationals who were lured to the U.S. archipelago in the South Pacific to earn what they thought would be a steady stream of dollars.

But instead of stitching clothing for U.S. manufacturers and retailers in humane conditions at the factory, the workers endured abuse, threats, lack of food and pay, confinement, sexual advances and unsanitary and stifling-hot dorms.

The Vietnamese workers paid up to $8,000 per person to Vietnamese government labor export offices for the opportunity and documents to work at Lee's factory, which operated from 1998 to 2001.

Twelve of those workers, all women, now live in Washington state. The sentencing was bittersweet for them and Hai-Tri Le, a Microsoft Corp. employee who helped many garment workers move to the continental United States.

Two years ago, a special report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer profiled some of those workers and Le.

Yesterday, the Lynnwood resident said he is concerned about 90 workers who suffered abuse at the garment factory but who were later sent back to Vietnam. Many, he said, have lost their homes to loan sharks who lent them money at high interest rates to go abroad.

The loan sharks, he added, also are harassing the repatriated workers for money owed.

"I was thinking more about the victims in Vietnam," he said. "I knew (Lee) was going to jail. He deserved to go to jail. The length of time didn't concern me that much."

By testifying against Lee at a federal trial in Hawaii, the factory workers who did not return to Vietnam received special "T" visas from the U.S. government. Those visas enable human trafficking victims to reside in the United States.

Seattle resident Nga Cao, a former worker at the factory and now a visa holder, said yesterday that she wants to focus on her new life. She and her husband have a baby girl, a U.S. citizen. These days, Cao, 30, works at a Vietnamese restaurant in the International District.

"I don't care. Whatever," she said yesterday, as she stuffed carrot slices into Vietnamese sandwiches, when asked about Lee's sentencing. "A thousand years. It doesn't matter because I'm here now. I'm happy."

A few years ago, though, she and the other workers were miserable.

Guards at the garment factory were armed with plastic pipes. A fence encircled the compound with razor wire on some parts. A curfew was in place. Workers were malnourished, and some seamstresses stopped having menstrual cycles.

Some dorms lacked running water and reeked of human waste and body odor. And Lee threatened the workers with penalties if they did not work hard enough.

In November 2000, during a confrontation at the factory, guards and workers clashed. A female seamstress lost her eye and a male worker had his eardrum shattered.

Virginia Sudbury and Christa Lin, two lawyers on American Samoa, and Vietnamese community activists in the continental United States learned about the problems and vowed to help. Later, the U.S. government sent FBI agents to American Samoa and Lee's federal trial proceeded in Hawaii.

After learning about the workers' plight, Le took a leave of absence from Microsoft and visited the factory. There, the Vietnam War refugee served as a translator.

Lee's attorney in Hawaii has appealed the 40-year sentence to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, arguing, in part, that the 52-year-old should have been tried on American Samoa, about 5,000 miles from Seattle.

Still, Sudbury and Nguyen Dinh Thang, executive director of Boat People SOS, welcomed the sentencing.

"Hopefully, he will not see the light of day. We're very pleased with the sentence," said Sudbury, who was lead attorney for the workers and is now based in Salt Lake City.

Thang, who leads a refugee and immigrant social service agency in Falls Church, Va., also has assisted the garment workers. "It has been long overdue," he said.

He said more than 200 Vietnamese and Chinese garment workers from the factory now live in the United States.

The next step, he and Sudbury said, is to secure back pay and damages that the workers are owed. A court on American Samoa has ruled that Lee owes them $3.5 million.

"I am not going to rest until I get my clients' money," Sudbury said.

Because Lee claims that he is bankrupt, Thang and his social service agency want the Vietnamese government to pay restitution to the workers.

After all, he contends, a court on American Samoa is holding the Vietnamese government labor offices responsible, in addition to Lee.

Thang said the Vietnamese government wants to join the World Trade Organization. But support from U.S. lawmakers and businesspeople will be crucial for the Communist nation to join.

"We want (the) government to show a gesture of good will by paying the $3.5 million," he said.

"It's still not over."

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Largest U.S. human trafficking case leads to 40-year sentence

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A federal judge in Hawaii last week sentenced Kil Soo Lee, the former owner of an American Samoa garment factory, to 40 years in prison for involuntary servitude and trafficking, ending one chapter in the largest such case ever prosecuted on U.S. soil. U.S.

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Safe Horizon | Homepage Quickly exit site Click on this button when your abuser enters the room. This page will be changed to Google. Safe Horizon envisions a society free of family and community violence. We will lead the way by empowering victims of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault and human trafficking to move from crisis to confidence.

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