Report Criticizes Treatment Of Crab Pickers

Hundreds of Mexican women who travel to Maryland's Eastern Shore every summer to pick crabs are isolated and sometimes exploited by employers and recruiters, according to a new report that urges changes to a U.S. guest worker program.

The report, released Wednesday by American University and the Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, interviewed 43 of the 1,000 or so women employed at 11 crab companies last year who described being charged illegal fees by recruiters in Mexico and enduring substandard working conditions once they reached Maryland. 

The women, few of whom spoke English, said they lived in housing with backed-up sewage and no working stove; lacked transportation to buy groceries or seek medical care; were not trained for the job or told how their paychecks and taxes were handled; and had a hard time picking enough pounds of crabmeat to earn minimum wage. 

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