Illegal Displacement of a Group of People

[prema5010]

If a group of people were illegally displaced over a century and a half ago and, generation after generation, they have suffered ill treatment at the hands of the host governement, such that the group ends up having no place to call home, what is there legal recourse? Can someone be held resopnsible after such a long time to right this wrong?

[jk]

Do you mean like the indian, I mean native American groups that keep doing this?

It seems the Americans in their entirety continue to be held accountable for just such situations.

[prema5010]

I am talking about East Indians that were recruited from India to work on plantations in countries such as Guyana, Sout africa, Fiji etc. The process of recruitment was supposedly legal and above board, but on close scrutiny, there are many instances where these poor labourers were misled into an agreement that delivered a situation far from what it was supposed to be. Lot of these labourers had no idea, for instance , where Fiji was. when they boarded ships.Plus, the conditions that were imposed upon them were terrible.

[mhnz]

I think if a legal recourse along these lines are to be taken seriously, it would need to be through the International Treaties and Human Rights Law. Then you get a problem with International Law vs Parliamentary Supremacy (In Fiji). The other one is that the awareness of Human Rights and slave labour and equality came after the mass migration itself. As you mention Fiji, I think the Indo-Fijians in Fiji are quite happy and have developed a culture of their own which is unique and quite different to the culture found in India.