As we approach the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting the gulf region it’s not only important to look back at what happened and why it went down the way it did, but how people are surviving or not now. A group of workers from across Latin America that were contracted as “guest workers” in New Orleans to work in hotels in the area filed a federal lawsuit yesterday saying that what they were promised isn’t what they were served.

They were recruited with false promises of good earnings and instead have been left with thousands of dollars in debt for their visas, recruitment fees and journeys here.

Workers paid thousands of dollars to recruitment companies working for Decatur Hotels LLC, which owns 15 hotels in NOLA.

The workers came here from as far away as Preu as workers under the H-2B visa program which is reserved for employers who say they cannot find U.S. workers to fill emptpy job posts. Once here, the workers claim, the hotel company didn’t offer 40 hours a week worth of work, leaving the workers in debt and believing that they were hired to be taken advantage of.

“I think I am coming here for an opportunity, but instead I am having the most worst living nightmare,” said Luis Lopez, 34, a room service worker at the Decatur group’s Astor Crowne Plaza at the edge of the French Quarter.

Via / The Washington Post