Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is being sued by 30 former IT staff from its Florida offices who claim they were unfairly replaced by foreign workers - but only after being forced to train them up.

The suit, filed Monday in an Orlando court, alleges that Disney laid off 250 of its US IT staff because it wanted to replace them with staff from India, who were hired in on H-1B foreign employee visas.

That, the suit says, is racial discrimination - and it's now demanding damages, in a case that has also caught the eye of President-elect Donald Trump, The Register reported.

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Tragic Kingdom? American ex-Disney employees say they were fired because the company wanted to replace them with cheaper Indian workers on visas; Disney denies the claim

The suit claims that between October 2014 and January 31, 2015, the 30 Florida IT staff members applied for employment in various positions within Disney.

They were turned down, it said, despite being 'well-qualified', and then terminated on or after January 31 'based solely on their national origin and race'.

Employing staff on H-1B visas gives companies more control over staff because if they lay them off, the staff have just 14 days to leave the country.

That means, critics argue, that they are more likely to put up with worse pay and working hours than US employees.

Sara Blackwell, who is representing the workers, admitted the case would be difficult to win. 'Businesses have tweaked the laws to make this happen,' the attorney said.

Support: Disney employee Leo Perrero (left) got support from Donald Trump on his election campaign. Perrero is one of 30 suing Disney in an Orlando court

'These are hard claims to win but what these companies are doing is morally and legally wrong. Just because they've figured out a way to do this doesn't make it right.'

In a statement to the Register, Disney said the lawsuit was ' nonsense' and that it would 'defend it vigorously'.

The case caught the eye of Donald Trump while he was campaigning at the start of the year, with the now-President-elect promising to crack down on the misuse of H-1B visas.

Trump even invited one of the fired employees named in the suit, Leo Perrero, to speak at one of his rallies in Alabama.

Perrero had previously broken down in a Senate hearing while speaking out about his alleged treatment by Disney.

The former Disney worker audibly sobbed as he recalled how he'd had to tell his children that he couldn't buy a pumpkin at a church sale because he was about to lose his job.

A March 3 post on Trump's website quotes the President-elect as saying: 'The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay.

'I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse and ending outrageous practices such as those that occurred at Disney in Florida when Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements.'

Trump has set up a group, the President's Strategic and Policy Forum, to shut down outsourcing by companies and fulfill his pledge to return jobs to America.