Register Staff and

The immigrant welder thought he was coming to America, the "fairy tale place," to work for a Napa firm on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge for wages six times higher than he could earn in his native Thailand.

Instead, he found himself trapped in near-slavery, working 13-hour days at a Long Beach restaurant. For three months of full-time work, he said, he was paid a total of $220.

The labor recruiter, he said, confiscated his passport, housed him in a shabby apartment with no gas, electricity or furniture and threatened to send him back to Thailand to face crushing debts if he complained.

But the ordeal of Sathaporn Pornsrisirisak, 43, of Napa, ended Friday as federal authorities announced a $1.4-million settlement in a case involving him and 47 other Thai welders brought to California four years ago.

"No amount of money can compensate for what we have today, which is our freedom, our family and justice," said Pornsrisirisak. "Although I have seen the worst of America, I have also seen the best that this country has to offer, such as laws that can bring about justice for people who are so powerless and exploited that you can't imagine exists."

The case, settled by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Trans Bay Steel Corp. of Napa, represents what experts call the hidden face of human trafficking: migrant laborers legally recruited -- largely from Asia and Latin America -- but exploited and abused while here.

Trans Bay charges it was "duped" by an employment agency into sponsoring more workers than needed, who then were diverted to the Long Beach restaurant and one in Los Angeles without the steel company's knowledge or permission.

Trans Bay attorney Doug Smith said the company agreed to the settlement to help the victims and warned other businesses to thoroughly investigate any potential employment agencies. Trans Bay is suing the agency -- Kota Manpower Inc. of Thailand and Los Angeles -- for alleged fraud in Napa Superior Court.

"Trans Bay views itself as a victim," Smith said, "but they feel they need to step up and accept the responsibility of trying to help the people who were damaged."

Smith said Kota appeared legitimate.

"The local issue for Trans Bay is this was an employer that went through what they thought was a legitimate employment agency with attorneys and accountants and this aura of correctness," he said.

Smith said Trans Bay came to the rescue of many of the exploited workers, who he said were in dire need of work and money when they were rescued.

"They needed work and they needed assistance down there," Smith said. "Trans Bay worked out an agreement with the (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) so they could come to Napa and take the jobs that that they were originally supposed to take."

Smith said 22 of the exploited workers now have jobs at Trans Bay, while others have encountered legal problems that prevent them working in Napa.

Anna Park, a lawyer for the EEOC, said her agency is trying to pursue charges against Kota, which has closed its Los Angeles office, but has not been able to locate company President Yoo Taik Kim.

Kim's attorney, Dan Marmalefsky, told the Associated Press he had just learned about the accusations and his client was innocent. Kim, who is Korean but lived in Thailand and speaks the language, did not take anyone's passport, he said.

Kim was helping out an acquaintance at Trans Bay who asked him to use his contacts with the Thai government to find some qualified welders, Marmalefsky said.

"When Trans Bay didn't follow through on its commitments, Mr. Kim on his personal expense offered the workers free housing, provided them with food and brought them to the Thai embassy to help them," he said.

Authorities say they are still looking for Kim, who also has a business in San Jose. A man identified by Marmalefsky as Kim called on a cell phone in Los Angeles Friday and said he had never been contacted by anyone on the matter. He said he only learned of the accusations through an article in the Korean press.

"I didn't do anything wrong," said Kim, adding that he did not receive any money from Trans Bay.

The Thai welders represent bonded laborers: those forced into servitude to repay enormous loans in a scheme that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services calls the most widely used method of enslaving people today.

The settlement gives most of the workers between $5,000 and $7,500 in personal injury damages, along with financial assistance for housing, relocation, education and other expenses. Trans Bay also has hired 22 welders and offered jobs to the others to start after they get work visas, according to Park.

And 17 of the workers have won an even greater prize: a special visa for victims of trafficking granted under a 2000 federal law that allows them to stay in the U.S. for three years and apply for legal permanent residency after that. Thanks to the visa, Pornsrisirisak was able to bring his wife and 10-year-old daughter to California in February. Trafficking visa applications are pending for 22 other workers.

According to Trans Bay's Smith, the steel firm approached Kota to recruit 10 welders from Thailand to help manufacture piles and hinge beams for the Bay Bridge. Smith said the Napa steel firm agreed to pay Kota a compensation package that amounted to $18.80 per hour for each worker, and that the employment agency was supposed to pay the welders directly.

When the workers began complaining that Kota was not paying them as the contract required, Trans Bay terminated the relationship, Smith said. Meanwhile, Smith alleged, Kota improperly used Trans Bay documents to bring in additional workers under the nation's legal guest worker program.

That group included Pornsrisirisak. The soft-spoken laborer said he began seeking work overseas when his construction firm went belly-up in Bangkok. For the privilege of a coveted job in the U.S., he was required to pay a $12,500 "recruitment fee" -- money far beyond his $200 monthly wage. But he said he was desperate to provide for his family, so he borrowed the money from a bank and loan shark at exorbitant interest rates.

That, according to trafficking experts, is precisely the trap that many victims enter, rendering them vulnerable to threats of retaliation against their families back home if they don't stay on the job and work off the crushing debt.

Pornsrisirisak said he and several other men were taken to Long Beach in December 2002 and forced to renovate a Thai restaurant, stripping floors and fixing toilets. After it opened, he said, he was made to work there daily as a waiter from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

A Kota employee confiscated workers' passports, drove them to and from the job and threatened them with deportation if they complained.

After three months, Pornsrisirisak said, he and the others plotted an escape with a Thai patron of the restaurant who drove them to a Thai temple. The group eventually hooked up with the Thai community center in Los Angeles.

Martorell of the Thai center said the workers in the complex case were aided by various other agencies.

The Department of Labor obtained $61,000 in back wages from Trans Bay for the original 10 welders. The L.A.-based Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking helped the victims secure housing, jobs, health care, public benefits and, most important, permission for their families in Thailand to come here.

Pornsrisirisak, who now works at Trans Bay, said he hopes to make the U.S. his permanent home.

"This is the greatest country in the world, where justice can prevail," he said.