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Alabama car factory sued for exploiting migrant children

2022-07-22T16:53:36.819Z


The disappearance of a Guatemalan teenager uncovers alleged abuse of minors who were forced to work stamping metal for parts, according to a Reuters investigation.


A subsidiary company of the Hyundai automobile company exploited migrant minors, some Latinos, in a factory in Montgomery, Alabama, in recent years, according to an investigation published this Friday by the Reuters news agency.

The children worked at the metal stamping plant of the SMART company, which supplies parts for the assembly of the Elantra, Sonata and Santa Fe car models.

Hyundai factory in Montgomery in 2008. Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

A dozen employees and former employees of the factory told Reuters that the hiring of minors is a common practice of SMART, despite the fact that federal laws prohibit people under 18 years of age from stamping and pressing metals due to the need to use dangerous machinery.

Alabama law also requires children under 17 to be in school.

The minors were contacted through recruitment agencies, according to current and former factory workers, as well as local officials interviewed by Reuters.

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SMART denied in a statement that it hired "someone who was not eligible for employment" and said it fills vacancies with staff from temporary employment agencies, which it said it expects "to follow the law in recruiting, hiring and placing employees." workers".

The disappearance of a Guatemalan girl

Among the allegedly exploited minors was a 14-year-old Guatemalan teenager and her two brothers, aged 12 and 15, according to their father, Pedro Ji, to Reuters.

The young woman's family, who lived in the town of Enterprise (Alabama), reported her disappearance in early February.

Authorities located her in Georgia with a 21-year-old Guatemalan migrant named Álvaro Kukul.

The girl told her that she had traveled there in search of other job opportunities.

His case led to SMART laying off an unknown number of minor workers, according to sources consulted by Reuters.

This Latina talks about her fight against the labor exploitation of migrant children in the US.

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"Serious labor shortage"

A former SMART worker, an elderly migrant who prefers not to be identified, explained that in his time there were about 50 minors in the factory.

Another former employee, also unidentified, assured that there were a dozen children on his shift.

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A former employee who identified herself as Tabatha Moultrie, 39, said the assembly plant needs migrant labor to maintain its daily production, and acknowledged working with a migrant girl who "appeared to be 11 or 12 years old."

SMART CEO Gary Sport asked U.S. consular officials in Mexico for a visa for a Mexican worker in late 2020, claiming the factory was suffering from a “serious labor shortage.”

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In addition, some 40 Mexican workers have sued SMART and other companies that help hire immigrants on work visas, saying they were recruited as engineers but forced to do less-skilled work.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2022-07-22

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