| Taken Question Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC April 25, 2006 Question Taken at the April 25th Daily Press Briefing Iraq: U.S. Companies Holding Foreign Passports?Question: Have U.S. companies in Iraq been confiscating the passports of third-country workers? Doesn’t this go against U.S. labor practices? Answer: We are aware of such allegations and are taking steps to fully investigate the matter. Following consultations between Embassy Baghdad, the Department of State, and the Department of Defense, the Department of Defense’s Office of the Inspector General opened an official investigation into the matter of deceptive or abusive labor practices by contractors, including subsidiaries of U.S. firms. The Department of State is also working with host governments and resident NGOs in countries providing or recruiting laborers to work on U.S. bases in Iraq to ensure that private employment brokers in these countries are not engaging in deceptive or abusive practices. US policy remains that all U.S. contractors working in Iraq follow Iraqi labor law and fair and equitable labor practices. 2006/416 |
 | |||
|
