Asians confined to warehouses [December 06 2008]

About 1,000 Asian men from Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Bangladesh who were hired by a Kuwaiti subcontractor to the U.S. military have been confined for as long as three months in windowless warehouses near the Baghdad airport without money or a place to work, reports McClatchy news service. Here in the United States the CNN on December 4 telecast a special report from Iraqi capital Baghdad of the plight of the Asian workers who were promised work but are partially starved with no money receiving handouts from Iraqi well-wishers.

Najlaa International Catering Services, a subcontractor to KBR, an engineering, construction and services company, hired the men, who're from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. On Tuesday, they staged a march outside their compound to protest their living conditions.

"It's really dirty," a Sri Lankan man told news services, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he still wants to work for Najlaa. "For all of us, there are about 12 toilets and about 10 bathrooms.