AMMAN (AFP) — A Jordanian subcontractor for US construction and services giant KBR denied on Monday accusations of human trafficking to Iraq after a group of Nepalese workers sued the two companies last month.
A Nepalese man and relatives of 12 slain comrades filed a lawsuit in the US state of California in August against KBR and subcontractor Jordanian Daoud and Partners, accusing them of tricking the men into working in Iraq.
But Daoud and Partners denied in a statement "any role in the unfortunate case" that led to the deaths of the 12 Nepalese who were abducted and executed in Iraq in 2004.
"The company... does not have any information that a lawsuit was filed against it outside Jordan," it said.
The government decided on Monday to set up a unit to "investigate human trafficking cases and refer them to court," the state-run Petra news agency reported.
It also decided to draft a law on human trafficking "as a pre-emptive step to prevent this phenomena from occurring in the future," Petra said.
"Jordan rejects all kinds of human trafficking... Jordan's image must remain bright and transparent," Interior Minister Eid Fayez was quoted by Petra as saying.
The Nepalese men, aged between 18 and 27, "were recruited in Nepal to work as kitchen staff in hotels and restaurants in Amman," their lawyers said in a statement in August.
However, once they arrived in Jordan "they were not provided the expected employment".
Their passports were seized, and they were told they were being sent to Iraq "to provide menial labour" at Al-Asad Air Base, the statement read.
Twelve of the men were packed into a car and driven to Iraq, but on the road were stopped by insurgents with the Ansar al-Sunna Army, taken hostage and executed. The executions were posted on the Internet.
The plaintiffs "allege that the illicit trafficking scheme -- from their recruitment in Nepal to their eventual employment in Iraq -- was engineered by KBR and its subcontractor."
KBR, formerly known as Kellogg Brown and Root -- a former subsidiary of the Halliburton energy giant once led by Vice President Dick Cheney, was at the time the largest contractor servicing the US military in Iraq.
Heather Browne, a spokeswoman for KBR, told AFP last month that the company had not yet seen the lawsuit "so it is premature for us to comment at this time."
But she said KBR "in no way condones or tolerates unethical or illegal behaviour".
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