Displaced Samoa
workers find refuge
in Hawaii

A Baptist group raises donations
for workers displaced
from Samoa sweatshop

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By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

NINETEEN BAGS OF RICE from an Asian market on Beretania Street. Bananas, squash and eggplant from a Laotian farmer. And 300 catfish.

These are among the donations pouring in to the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention after it opened its doors to workers, most of them Vietnamese, from American Samoa.

The workers were among 250 employees of a small clothing factory in American Samoa who were forced to work under inhumane conditions, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court here last week.

The Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention is headquarters for Southern Baptist churches in Hawaii, American and Western Samoa, and Guam. Its primary role is to help those churches train its volunteers.

Stanley Togikawa, who coordinates the volunteers, said that in addition to food, church members and the public have been giving money and offering jobs to the Vietnamese workers so they can stay in Hawaii.

"We feel these people need our help, and if we don't help them, then were not doing what we're supposed to be doing," Togikawa said.

A U.S. Labor Department investigation accuses Kil Soo Lee, owner of Daewoosa Samoa Ltd., of federal violations that included beating and restraining his employees to force them to work, withholding their pay, and depriving them of food.

The clothing factory where they had worked closed in January after reports of abuse surfaced and the U.S. Department of Labor began investigating.

Some of the employees returned to Vietnam but others chose to come to Hawaii to see if they can make a go of it here or on the mainland.

Togikawa, who was in American Samoa in January and helped provide food for the workers when the factory closed, said the workers don't have much money. Some are still paying back the Vietnamese government for the $4,000 fee they were required to pay to go to American Samoa to work.

Nearly 50 workers, including four babies, have arrived in the past few weeks and so far about 40 remain, he said. Last night, Yummy's Restaurant provided a dinner for them.

Doctors have been providing free services for those who need medical treatment. And people have called to donate airline tickets.

Anyone interested in helping the workers can call the Baptist Convention at 946-9581. Togikawa said the workers could use not only cash, but food, stamps, and even phone cards to help them call sponsoring families on the mainland.