Hindu group luring Indian laborers to US temples, making them work for low wages

There are allegations that a Hindu organization based in the US lured hundreds of workers from India to work at several temple sites for wages as low as $1. Indian workers filed a lawsuit against BAPS in May this year, alleging violations of human trafficking and wage law, alleging they were forced to work for USD 1 on constructing the massive Swaminarayan temple in New Jersey.

An article in the New York Times reports that the lawsuit filed in federal court in New Jersey and amended last month accuses BAPS of recruiting Indian workers to work as laborers in temples at Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and Robbinsville, New Jersey, for just $450 a month.

In the amended lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged they also worked in temples around the country. The lawsuit claimed hundreds were being exploited, the NYT reported. In the report, six Indian nationals were among over 200 brought to the US on religious visas, or ‘R-1 visas’, from around 2018. The NYT report said the men worked ‘grueling hours under often dangerous conditions’ on the New Jersey site.

FBI raid rescued around 200 workers.
In a statement to PTI, India Civil Watch International (ICWI) said on May 11 that an FBI-led raid rescued some 200 workers from the premises of the Swaminarayan Temple in Robbinsville, New Jersey, which is reportedly the largest Hindu temple in the country. In the amended complaint, the BAPS officials were accused of violating state labour laws and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO, which was created to combat organized crime, the report said.

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In the complaint, allegations of forced labor, trafficking in forced labour, document servitude, conspiracy, and theft of immigration documents with the intent To engage in fraud foreign labor contracting are listed. As reported by the NYT, the workers ‘lived in trailers hidden from view and had been promised jobs helping to build the temple’ in Robbinsville with ‘standard work hours and ample time off’.

13 hours a day of work
However, the workers performed manual labour on the project, ‘lifting large stones, operating cranes and other heavy machinery, digging ditches, and shoveling snow, all for about US $450 per month’. US $50 was paid in cash, with the remainder deposited in Indian bank accounts.” BAPS officials have denied any wrongdoing.