Momtaj Mansur longed to return home to his mother and brother, to the lush pastures of Nepal’s southern plains. He described feeling trapped in a squalid bunkhouse in Saudi Arabia, dealing with unemployment, hunger, and mounting debt. In 2021, the 23-year-old traveled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with aspirations of working for Amazon, one of the world’s largest companies. However, what awaited him was a far cry from his envisioned dream job. He recounted experiencing dismal pay and a sense of despair while working at an expansive two-story Amazon warehouse, rushing to fulfill orders for iPhones and various items sought by customers across the Arabian peninsula.
Then, in May 2022, Mansur and numerous fellow Nepali coworkers were suddenly laid off from their positions at the Amazon warehouse. Stranded 2,400 miles away from home, they found themselves without wages and struggling to secure enough food.
Mansur described how he appealed to the Saudi worker supply company, which held their employment contracts and had placed them in what were essentially temporary roles at Amazon. He implored them that if there was no more work, they should be allowed to return to Nepal.
Momtaj Mansur is among numerous present and past employees who allege they were deceived and mistreated by recruitment agencies in Nepal and labor providers in Saudi Arabia, subsequently enduring harsh conditions while working in Amazon’s warehouses.
Exploitative Practices and Deception: Nepali Workers’ Ordeal in Amazon’s Saudi Facilities
Their stories shed light on how prominent American companies can benefit, either directly or indirectly, from employment practices that might qualify as labor trafficking—defined as using force, coercion, or deception to compel individuals to work or provide services.
A news panel interviewed the workers. Out of the 54 Nepali workers who were interviewed, 48 expressed that recruiters had deceived them regarding their employment conditions, falsely assuring them that they would be working directly for Amazon. All 54 individuals mentioned that they were compelled to pay recruitment fees, ranging from approximately $830 to $2,300, which significantly exceeded the limits set by Nepal’s government and violated American and United Nations guidelines.
During their tenure in Saudi Arabia, these workers claimed that they received a fraction of the wages earned by direct Amazon hires at warehouses in Saudi Arabia. This was due to labor supply companies taking substantial portions of the payments that Amazon allocated for their labor.
Several workers reported that after being laid off from their positions at Amazon, their labor supply company attempted to extract more money from them, exploiting Saudi laws that grant employers extensive authority over the freedom of movement for foreign workers. Mansur is one of the 20 Nepali workers who mentioned that worker supply companies informed them they couldn’t return to Nepal unless they paid exit fees, often amounting to several month’s worth of wages.
“We have already paid money to come here, and we have to pay additional money to return?” lamented one current employee. “We feel trapped.”
Amazon acknowledged in a written response to inquiries that certain employees at its Saudi facilities had experienced mistreatment.
Worker Testimonies Reveal Potential Worker Trafficking Indicators and Violations of Worker Policies of Amazon
This report, produced collaboratively by The Guardian US, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), NBC News, and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, is part of Trafficking Inc., an investigative project focused on the human trafficking and labor exploitation across Asia, the United States, Africa, and the Middle East.
During interviews, workers shared accounts of unfair practices by Amazon and labor agents involved in their employment. They substantiated their claims with various forms of evidence, including photographs, videos, and a plethora of documents such as passports, job contracts, plane tickets, arrival documents, Amazon ID badges, paystubs, work permits, medical records, and screenshots of internal chat messages. While some former workers spoke openly, current and other former workers opted to remain anonymous due to fears of reprisal.
The report of the interviews outlined practices that align with potential labor trafficking indicators under both US law and UN standards. These practices encompassed subjecting workers to harsh working and living conditions, restricting their mobility, and providing deceptive information about wages, working conditions, and the true identity of the employer. UN standards emphasize that private recruiting agencies should not impose any fees or costs on workers; the responsibility for such expenses should lie with the employer.
The described practices by warehouse workers also appeared to contravene Amazon’s labor policies. In a statement from 2022, Amazon acknowledged its recognition of the unique vulnerability of both domestic and foreign migrant workers and affirmed that workers should not be charged any recruitment fees at any stage of the hiring process.
Amnesty International’s Investigation and Workers’ Perspectives on Amazon’s Saudi Operations
Amnesty International, a human rights organization, corroborated the workers’ accounts in an independent investigation into the treatment of Nepali workers at Amazon’s Saudi operations.
Ella Knight, a labor rights researcher based in London for Amnesty, confirmed that the organization had informed Amazon about these concerns in June and provided comprehensive details of its findings in August. Knight suggested that both Amnesty’s investigation and the separate investigations by various news outlets likely influenced Amazon’s public commitment to implementing stronger controls and ensuring the reimbursement of recruiting fees to workers.
Several Nepali laborers stressed that they do not solely blame Amazon. They believe that their situation could have been manageable if there were no intermediary labor supply companies between them and direct employment with the global company. A current worker expressed a desire for Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and executive chairman, to understand their suffering under the current system and expressed eagerness to work at Amazon through direct hiring.
