The Great Escape

A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America

By: Saket Soni

Narrated by: Saket Soni

The astonishing story of immigrants lured to the United States from India and trapped in forced labor—an "eye-opening" "must-read" told by the visionary labor leader who engineered their escape and set them on a path to citizenship (The New York Times Book Review). ​

In late 2006, Saket Soni, a 28-year-old, Indian-born community organizer received an anonymous phone call from an Indian migrant worker inside a Mississippi labor camp. He and 500 other men were living in squalor in Gulf Coast “man camps,” surrounded by barbed wire, watched by armed guards, crammed into cold trailers with putrid portable toilets, forced to eat moldy bread and frozen rice. Worse, lured by the promise of good work and green cards, the men had desperately scraped together up to $20,000 each to apply for this “opportunity” to rebuild oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina, putting their families into impossible debt. During a series of clandestine meetings, Soni and the workers devise a bold plan. In The Great Escape, Soni traces the workers’ extraordinary escape, their march on foot to Washington DC, and their 23-day-hunger strike to bring attention to their cause. Along the way, ICE agents try to deport the men, company officials work to discredit them, and politicians avert their eyes. But none of this shakes the workers’ determination to win their dignity and keep their promises to their families.

Weaving a deeply personal journey with a riveting tale of 21st-century forced labor, Soni takes us into the hidden lives of the foreign workers the US increasingly relies on for cheap skilled labor to rebuild after climate disasters. The Great Escape is the astonishing story of one of the largest human trafficking cases in modern American history—and the workers’ heroic journey for justice.

The Power of the People

I am inspired by the organizing campaign and more determined than ever to continue the fight for Immigration Reform.

Very interesting, analytical and colorful

The author does a wonderful job is not only bring people and actions to life, but in analyzing the process of this particular set of processes and strategies. Very interesting!

Riveting!

I was completely engrossed and invested in the individuals and families involved in this account. Tears flowed out of my eyes time and time again along with alarm and anger learning about their lives and sacrifices. Thank you for sharing your lives with us.

A riveting recount of one of the biggest human trafficking case in us history.

I was gripped from the title. I hung on to every word rooted for the men and cried with them. the Immigrant story is one of many twists and turns as I know all to well. it's really well written and I'd love it to be a movie

Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world

Couldn’t stop listening to this terrific book, which is some of the best non-fiction I’ve picked up. Interested in a riveting tale, with great characters and a laugh? Read this true story. A delicious multi-faceted primer on how social justice work happens.