| Kuwait Ambassador to the UN
Charged With Forced Labor and Visa
Fraud But Still at Large
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
book
BBC -
Honduras
- CIA
Trial book - NY
Mag
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Oct 11 – Diplomats working at
the United Nations in New York
have repeatedly been found
involved in force labor, and
in one recent case of an
Ambassador of South Sudan to
the UN, rape. Inner City Press
asked UN Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric for UNSG Antonio
Guterres' comments about the
diplomat, without answer; he
has been allowed to flee the
country.
On October 11,
BARRAK ABDULMOHSEN ALHUNAIF, a
former diplomatic attaché
assigned to the Permanent
Mission of the State of Kuwait
to the United Nations, and his
wife KHALEDAH SAAD ALDHUBAIBI
were charged in the U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
with forced labor, visa fraud,
fraud in foreign labor
contracting, and conspiracy to
commit visa fraud and fraud in
foreign labor contracting, in
connection with their hiring
and subsequent abuse of three
domestic workers from India
and the Philippines.
Both ALHUNAIF and ALDHUBAIBI
remain at
large.
According
to the allegations in the
Indictment filed today in
SDNY, ALHUNAIF and ALDHUBAIBI
obtained the visas through the
submission of fraudulent
employment contracts, which,
among other things, vastly
overstated the domestic
workers’ salaries, understated
their hours, and falsely
guaranteed other benefits,
such as paid holidays and
private living accommodations.
Once the
domestic workers arrived in
the United States, ALHUNAIF
and ALDHUBAIBI paid the
domestic workers far less than
what was specified in their
contracts and what was the
minimum salary required by
law. In order to conceal
this scheme, ALHUNAIF provided
payments to the domestic
workers for the amounts set
forth in their employment
contracts but required the
domestic workers to withdraw a
portion of their paycheck in
cash and to return the cash to
either ALHUNAIF or
ALDHUBAIBI.
As a result,
ALHUNAIF and ALDHUBAIBI paid
at least two of the domestic
workers as little as $700 per
month. ALHUNAIF and
ALDHUBAIBI also regularly
compelled each of the domestic
workers to work far in excess
of 40 hours per week and
without a regular day
off.
Further, ALHUNAIF
and ALDHUBAIBI subjected the
domestic workers to other
abusive conditions, including
requiring two of them to
surrender their passports upon
arrival in the United States,
restricting their ability to
leave their employment, and
controlling the domestic
workers’ movements by
prohibiting them from leaving
their residence without their
express permission. ALHUNAIF
and ALDHUBAIBI also denied two
of the domestic workers timely
medical care for medical
conditions caused by or
contracted during their
employment.
ALDHUBAIBI verbally abused
each of the domestic workers
and physically abused one of
the workers. ALHUNAIF
and ALDHUBAIBI also threatened
at least one domestic worker
on several occasions.
These threats included, among
other things, that ALHUNAIF
and ALDHUBAIBI would falsely
report the domestic worker to
law enforcement for stealing
from them or mistreating their
children.
And yet the UN congratulates
itself for protection
children. Inner City Press
will have more on this.
***
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