World

What Happened in Huntsville

by Kashish | February 2008

Breaking Down the Huntsville Incident:

Cinram: An Ontario-based company whose factory in Huntsville, Alabama, hired about 270 Nepalis as temporary workers under H2-B visa, valid for seven months.

Ambassador (formerly Blair): The manpower agency in Huntsville, Alabama, that employed these Nepalis on behalf of Cinram. Promised to pay $8/hr for 12-hour shifts.

Nirvana Alliance: The manpower agency in Nepal that sent the workers to Huntsville to work for Cinram.

Total Management Services: The apartment management company owned and run by Tim and Mary Snopl. The couple is one of the 20 or so landlords with whom Ambassador works to house workers recruited from foreign countries.

Huntsville, a Tennessee valley in Northern Alabama, is a relatively quiet town of about 200,000. As the plane flies towards the airport, the fields and river banks along the Tennessee river are reminiscent of what one sees out the airplane window before one lands at the Biratnagar airport in Eastern Nepal. The runway concrete can be seen fading into dry winter grass that disappear under trees at a distance, where layers of hills cover the hazy horizon.

This part of Downtown Huntsville, just around the County Court House and near a park and Museum, has a quaint New England town feel to it, and has some buildings that have been around for over 100 years.

"This is like Kathmandu but without the mountains," says Kapil Basnet, a Nepali worker at the local Cinram factory, pointing out the hills that surround the town.

A recent influx of Nepali residents has seen the small community of perhaps less than two dozen Nepalis in Huntsville jump to nearly a 100 or more. Tilak B. Shrestha, Ph.D, is one such recent newcomer. "I have been living in this part of the country for quite a while now but I moved to Huntsville only a few months ago," says the Image Scientist, "My work brought me here."

But the larger group of Nepali residents who moved into Huntsville has consisted of Diversity Visa (DV) lottery winners, winners of a Congress-mandated annual lottery that grants eligible foreigners permanent residency status in America. Since the program's introduction in Nepal, 9,000 Nepalis have won the DV lottery; 1529 won in 2007 and 2562 in 2008 alone.

"The number has just jumped in a year or so, I don't know why they move here though" says Santosh Pokharel, a gas station owner and resident of Huntsville for more than a decade. "A lot of Nepali students have also been coming to the college here."

Super Bowl party at the Santosh Pokharel residence in Madison, Huntsville. Pokharel has lived in Huntsville for over a decade and owns a gas station.

Despite the Nepali community's sudden growth, it had gone relatively unnoticed, perhaps because of other immigrant communities—such as Mexicans and Jamaicans—that are larger and more prominent. However, Nepali workers at Cinram did end up getting attention, though the introduction Huntsville residents got via news reports of 30 January, was perhaps unfair.

The Broken News:
On 30 January, WAAY-TV broke the news that 100 Nepali workers had "simply disappeared," some of whom "allegedly stole furniture and television sets from their furnished apartments." Soon enough NewsChannel 19 reported that as many as 150 Nepalis had left. They also reported "the employees allegedly stole $200,000 worth of furniture from two apartment buildings" they had been living in. And the Nepali national daily, Kantipur, published a report on their website stating: "According to the Associated Press Mary and Tim Snopl told the TV station they [Nepali workers] rented apartments in two buildings last fall to about 240 workers from Nepal.... But Mary Snopl said scores of the workers are now missing, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of furniture, televisions and kitchenware." Similar reports were subsequently published all over the world, from the United States to Turkey to Delhi and in websites that cater to corporate companies that work with temporary workers from foreign countries. By the end of the news cycle, it was essentially established that the Nepali workers had allegedly run away with stolen property.

The Cinram plant in Huntsville is a drive away from the downtown area and not easily accessible by public transportation. The entire Cinram campus is said to be humongous.

The reporter who broke the news, Nick Banaszak of WAAY-TV, says that he got a tip from a "reliable source" and followed up on the case. "There is no question that the Nepali workers have disappeared from there," he said in a phone conversation later. "The landlords did make the claims of these workers missing, which we verified with the Department of Homeland Security," he added. None of the reports, however, quote a single Nepali worker still in Huntsville.

"It is our understanding that the employer in the U.S. has reported some of the Nepali workers at the plant in Alabama as missing to the DHS. We have no verifiable details regarding how many are missing, when they went 'missing', or when they were reported as missing to the DHS," a spokesperson for the US Embassy in Nepal told us on 6 February.

Still, the workers had been permitted by Ambassador, on behalf of Cinram, to leave at any time they wanted to, without any clarifications. And their visas are valid till the end of May this year, allowing them to travel freely anywhere inside America. And all the Nepalis we spoke to felt insulted at the accusations of stealing. After inspecting the apartments, it seemed there wasn't much to steal.

He Said, She Said
On 29 November 2007, Ambassador, the hiring agency, gave out every Nepali worker a "Personal and Confidential" renewed contract. The document says, "This offer supersedes any previous offers verbal or written. Ambassador Personnel is an employment-at-will company and this offer in no way represents a contract for any particular duration. Employees are free to relinquish their positions at any time, with or without a cause; likewise the company is free to discontinue employment relationships at any time, with or without a cause."

So the Nepali workers did have the right to leave work as they wished. However, it seems none of them realized that a 30-day notice must be given to the landlords before leaving. "We never got a copy of our lease agreement and we always saw people of other nationalities leaving after a few days or a week in the apartment," explained Bikash Karki, one of the three dozen or so Nepali workers still working for Cinram. "So our friends also thought that was standard practice."

Reading the news by Challen Stephens on the Sunday edition of the Huntsville Times on Super Bowl Sunday. The report was the first to quote the Nepali workers and give a fair account.

If other nationalities had been leaving on a regular basis too, why did the Nepalis make the news? "Well, just because it was so many of them leaving," explained Mary Snopl. But unlike the first reports, or what Mary Snopl's explanation might suggest, the Nepali workers did not leave en masse. As Snopl herself said later during a phone interview, "They had been leaving from the very beginning. Some left in the first week, others waited for two weeks so that they had their social security numbers. But every week some of them would be leaving."

Clearly it was bad for the Snopl's business. "We had expected to house about 250 of them for seven months while they worked at Cinram, and we signed contracts with about 268 of the Nepali workers but they just started leaving," she added.

Sofas and patio furniture at the West Wind apartment. Most apartments have pretty much the same setup of old or cheap TV sets, old sofas and cheap plastic furniture

"Now why we have these apartments—there are about 20 landlords that we work with—it's only for the convenience of the workers," explains Dough Wilson, a corporate executive for Ambassador, the company that brought the Nepali workers here to work at Cinram. "We want them to have a place to live in as soon as they arrive. But in case any of these people want to move to another apartment then there is no stopping them. They just have to give a notice on time and leave."

A furnished apartment waiting for a stranger in a new country is indeed a convenience, as it was for the Nepali workers who arrived in Huntsville, often late at night after 10 p.m. But that fact itself has created a small confusion. "We were so tired and sleepy and disoriented when we got there late at night," says Raju Gurung. "And then we just signed these papers and came into the rooms they showed us. We didn't have any idea what we had signed, but then we didn't care because we didn't think this situation would ever arise."

Dinner at the West Wind Circle apartment becomes a social affair on some days. Food, quick game of cards and TV help the workers kill time with only 3 working days per week.

Many Nepalis still working for Cinram are truly hurt and surprised at the accusations that were made in the media about them and their friends. "We did not get a copy of our lease but we trusted these people," Gurung continued. "But now we're being called thieves and it is very unfair to us, we who have to live and work in Huntsville, and we feel even worse that other Nepalis are being insulted and questioned for no reason because of these reports."

What Snopl exactly claimed to be missing has changed, or become clearer, over time. Initial reports said she claimed furniture, kitchen appliances and TV, totaling to thousands of dollars. When she spoke to The Huntsville Times, she said that if things had just been moved around from one room to another, and not actually stolen, then it was okay. When speaking to us, she claimed "mostly towels, bedsheets and comforters" worth about "$10,000" or "10% of our stuff" had been stolen. "We meant that we had invested $200,000 in the contents of these apartments, not $200,000 worth of theft," she said, explaining the figure that had been originally published.

"It's just not true that the Nepali workers stole anything," says Sajan Thakuri. "Why would they want to take these old cheap things? Everyone took cabs to buses and airports, so they were trying to leave behind as many things as possible, not add junk."

After spending two days in these apartments, it was clear that most of the things were second-hand and cheap. Many of the kitchen utensils such as pots and pans displayed rusty bottoms with large patches of brown, most of their black coatings all but gone. And many of the Nepalis seemed to use their own towels, if not comforters and bedsheets. They also shopped for basic necessities, such as toothpastes and big bags of tissue paper, at the local Wal-Mart, about a 30-40 minutes walk away, and went to Krogers to buy groceries without penny-pinching, happily buying and consuming lots of milk, vegetables, meat and beer.

"No, we haven't reported it to the police," Mary Snopl said when asked if she had formally reported the theft of property worth approximately $10,000 to local authorities. "What's the use? They don't know where these guys are. They're all over the place."

Many of the the Nepali workers would not have left Cinram had they been earning enough there. But a Huntsville Times report dated 2 December last year said that a worker was only earning $7.50 as opposed to the promised $8 per hour. For much of late December and all of January, work shifts have been only three to four days per week, many of them starting at 6 p.m. and ending at 6 a.m. Several workers revealed that the break they are provided during their 12-hour shift, ranging from 30 minutes to an hour, gets deducted from their pay. "After the amount of money we paid to come here, thats just not a realistic wage," says Bahadur Thakuri.

There have been discrepancies in this case from the very beginning. The workers say there were about 240 of them there; Nirvana Alliance says 250, and the Snopls claim they rented apartments to about 268 Nepalis. Visas had been issued for the workers to specifically work at Cinram, but according to some of them, a handful never showed up for work on the first day, and some didn't even get to Huntsville. And yet no flags were raised by either Cinram or Ambassador. Both Ambassador and Nirvana Alliance maintain that they charged $750 by means of "consultancy" to help the workers get this job, but the workers confess that the unofficial fees ranged between $10,000 to $25,000, depending on how many brokers were employed as middle men.

The only thing that all the Nepalis seem to agree on is that they appreciate their working experience at Cinram, and that their only grievance is the working hours. While Cinram decreased hours for its Nepali workers citing "off season", it recruited more Jamaicans in January, according to The Huntsville Times.

While many of these Nepalis hope to seek an extended stay in the United States, and many of them have already been talking to lawyers and prospective employers to explore the chances of doing so legally, there is no evidence of them breaking any law. However, it's not clear whether agencies like Nirvana take advantage of Nepalis who want to get to America and stay there illegally, no matter what the cost to begin the process; or if Nepalis end up staying after their visas expire, to work illegally, because of the exorbitant amount of money they paid the manpower agencies in the beginning.

What is evident is that the Nepali workers left behind feel miserable. They might have harbored intentions of overstaying here in the United States, but their first American experience has already left a bitter taste in their mouth. "This isn't the America we had imagined. We're not thieves, but nobody asked us that before alleging us as one in their reports. Sure there were some who never wanted to come to Cinram at all, but most of us did. And those of our friends who left didn't run away, they left because the company said they could. They didn't tell the landlords because they had paid the last week's rent already and had left a $25 deposit. We didn't even know about the 30-day notice rule until this whole mess started because we have never gotten a chance to read our lease," says the disheartened R. K Shrestha.

After the reports on 30 Jan said that the Department of Homeland Security was investigating the case of the Nepali workers, many of them ended up canceling their tickets out of fear, losing money in cancellation fees, even though it was perfectly legal for them to travel.

How They Got There:
How the Nepali workers arrived in Huntsville to work for Cinram depends on which worker you talk to. Cinram has a history of recruiting foreign workers for its plants, claiming it can't find locals to fill those positions, and Ambassador has worked with them to recruit workers from various countries, including Nepal. The official fees for the process is $750 per person.

In Nepal, some of the workers dealt directly with Nirvana Alliance. In private conversations over the course of four days, several of the workers admitted to having paid a fee of about $10,000. These were the lucky ones.

Professional man-power "recruiters" who "recruit" people from villages in Nepal, guaranteeing them an American visa, often charge as much as $7,000 just to take them to Kathmandu and start the process. Sometimes, the first recruiter hands the workers over to a second recruiter, who charges an additional fee before connecting them with the agency responsible for sending them to the US, via their American partner, which in this case was Ambassador. These less fortunate workers paid amounts ranging from $20,000 to $25,0000.

A spokesperson for Nirvana Alliance, who has been intimately involved with the case, claimed that the company only "aided" the process of applying for these jobs and charged the $750 as a fee for "consultancy services" provided. He went on to explain that a representative of the company "informally informed" these workers of the job opening. The spokesperson, who would only speak under anonymity, went on to challenge anything else regarding the recruitment process in Nepal, and in particular the fee that was paid. "There have to be receipts of these transactions to prove anything otherwise," he said.

"Of course there were never any receipts for anything extra," Sudesh Khatri, one of the workers, explained in Huntsville. "And in any case, not all of the sum was directly given to Nirvana. Like I said, there were other steps in between for many of us."

The workers arrived in phases on Pakistan Airlines and Korean Airlines; according to a headcount that some of the workers recall, 114 of them arrived in October, 92 in November, and 20 more in December. One person who arrived alone was so disoriented upon his arrival in Atlanta that that he took a taxi and told the driver to take him to Huntsville. A Nepali whom he had contacted through pay phone told him there was nothing he could do to help and he should just go to the address he was given. The taxi ride cost him $300. Every Nepali worker in Cinram now feels the same way about their time in America; reach that destination of saving a few thousand dollars before going home, regardless of the cost.

A worker enjoys his breakfast while planning the day with a fellow Nepali worker. He especially enjoys watching documentaries on the National Geographic, Discovery and History channels.

Where They Went:
Unlike what the initial reports suggested, the Nepali workers trickled out of Huntsville individually or in very small groups, over several weeks. Many of those that have left Cinram and Huntsville have moved on to bigger American cities, particularly in the east coast and the west coast. "The thing is, we want to go wherever it seems like there is a better prospect for us," says Bardi Thakuri. "We would have loved to stay here and work, or even find other work legally, but we don't have cars nor do we have licenses," he adds.

The number of Nepali workers at Cinram is fast decreasing because of the three-day work schedule. But some are hoping to continue working there until May 31, before making any impulsive plans. "I don't quite want to move out of Cinram yet, especially until I have found another sponsor for my H2B visa, or Cinram itself increases work hours and extends my visa," says R.K Shrestha.

Though both Cinram and Ambassador have consistently maintained some of the workers went back to Nepal, the exact number remains unclear. "There was one guy from Boudha, Kathmandu, who came to the US just because he had a girlfriend in New York," Kishore Adhikari says. "But he found out she was already dating someone else so he went back to Nepal immediately." Some have said at least two of the workers have gone home.

The vast majority of Nepali workers seem to have left after spending some time at Cinram, but there were some who went off on their own immediately after arriving in the US. "There was one person who left our group as soon as he made his way through immigration at JFK," Thakuri says. "There were a few like that from Atlanta too, where some of the workers entered the country from."

Those who worked at Cinram for at least two weeks were given social security numbers, and several of the workers have made the most of it by buying cell phones, issuing state IDs and even driver's licenses.

The Cinram workers are given bus service to and from work for a fee of $30/week. In January they were charged for five weeks, although none of them understand why.

Their Status:
The Nepali workers all have H2-B visas, which can only be violated when taking a new job without reflecting the change on their visas. The visas they hold have been issued particularly for temporary work at Cinram.

Almost every worker left in Huntsville hoped to extend their stay in America legally. There wasn't anyone who wished to outright violate their visas. However, a majority of them confided that in the worst case scenario they will "stay on for 3 to 4 years and earn what we can" and go back to Nepal with no hopes of coming back to the US ever again.

"I came back to Nepal after 11 years in Japan," explains Subodh Basnet. "I just wanted to work on my family's farm and raise my family" continues the father of a three-year-old daughter, referring to his family's roughly 8-acre farm, a sizable land in a country about 34,595 acres big. "But you know, things were so uncertain in Nepal, shutdowns all the time, no job or investment opportunity. So here I am." Basnet has a sibling and other family members in the US who have been living here legally for years, and he hopes to do the same. He is quite certain he does not want to violate his visa, and keeps his options open as far as coming back to the US is concerned. However, he doesn't quite know what to do in Nepal.

Hari Ghale is a skilled trooper on an unskilled visa. He served in the Nepal Army for almost six years, specializing as a sniper. He also trained in taekwondo for several years. "I am hoping to work at Cinram till the end of my visa," he says. "But it would be great if I could extend my visa and work as a security person for a company for at least two more years. Then I don't have to worry about being illegal."

That these apartments have not been renovated in a long time is evident upon a quick inspection.

R.K Shrestha arrived in the US with several years of experience as a trucker, driving 16-wheelers in a gulf country. He doesn't know yet how he can get a similar job here, but, "I would love to do that again, it's something I know how to do," he says, weighing his possibilities for working here legally.

"Some of these guys, I don't think they'd ever dreamed of getting to America so easily," says Adhikari. "But I am trying to either change my status to student or find another company that will extend my visa."

Note: Names of Nepali workers at Cinram have been changed upon request.

Related:

• Nepalis, and America's Seasonal Workforce 

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