Contracted workers in Amazon warehouses in Saudi Arabia said they were deceived by recruitment agents and labour supply companies, cheated of their earnings, housed in appalling conditions and prevented from finding alternative employment or leaving the country, according to report by international non-governmental organisation Amnesty International.

The report documents what the organisation describes as ‘serious human rights abuses’ suffered by Nepali migrant workers employed by recruitment firms and contracted to work in Amazon’s warehouses in Saudi Arabia.

In its report, Amnesty International interviewed 22 men from Nepal who worked in Amazon’s warehouses in Riyadh or Jeddah between 2021 and 2023, and who were employed by two third-party labour supply contractors: Abdullah Fahad Al-Mutairi Support Services Co. (Al-Mutairi), or Basmah Al-Musanada Co. for Technical Support Services (Basmah).  

Amnesty says Amazon failed to prevent the contracted workers from being repeatedly exposed to human rights abuses, despite receiving complaints directly from workers about their treatment over a lengthy period of time.

“In many cases, it is highly likely that the abuses suffered by workers amounted to human trafficking, given the deception that occurred during their recruitment, and the exploitation endured once they were there,” Amnesty International stated.

Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Economic and Social Justice, said, “The workers thought they were seizing a golden opportunity with Amazon but instead ended up suffering abuses which left many traumatized. We suspect hundreds more endured similar appalling treatment. Many of those we interviewed suffered abuses so severe that they are likely to amount to human trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation.”

One worker told The Guardian that he wanted to go home to his mother and his brother and felt like a prisoner in a roach-infested bunkhouse in Saudi Arabia, out of work, hungry and deep in debt.

According to the worker, Momtaj Mansur, 23, Amazon managers berated him, he says, for being too slow as he worked to collect items for customers. He first moved to the capital city of Riyadh in 2021 to work for the ecommerce giant.

Then in May 2022, he says, he and many of his Nepali co-workers were abruptly let go from their jobs at the Amazon warehouse. They were 2,400 miles from home with no wages and little food. The worker said the recruitment firm gave him a choice between staying or paying a USD 1,300 exit fee.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International’s report found that, to secure work at Amazon’s facilities in Saudi Arabia, the interviewees, with one exception, paid recruitment agents in Nepal an average of USD 1,500. Some took high-interest loans to pay the fees.

During the recruitment process, the agents, sometimes in collusion with the Saudi Arabian labour supply companies, deceived many of the workers into believing they would be employed directly by Amazon.

Some workers began to suspect that Amazon was not their direct employer when they received their contracts and documentation just hours before they were due to fly, but having already paid recruitment fees felt they had no choice but to continue.

Others realised only after arriving in Saudi Arabia.

The Guardian’s own investigation found that 48 of the 54 Nepali workers interviewed by the publication also said recruiters misled them about the terms of their employment, falsely promising they would work directly for Amazon. All 54 say they were required to pay recruiting fees, ranging from roughly USD 830 to USD 2,300, that far exceed what’s allowed by Nepal’s government and defy American and United Nations standards.

During their time in Saudi Arabia, these workers say, they were paid a fraction of what direct hires for Amazon’s Saudi warehouses earn, because labour supply firms were taking big cuts of what Amazon was paying for their labour.

The workers also said to be mostly housed, for months, in dirty and overcrowded accommodation, sometimes infested with bed bugs, according to Amnesty International. They were put to work in Amazon warehouses, but the contractors often withheld part of their salaries and/or food allowances without explanation, and underpaid overtime.

In the warehouses, workers said they were repeatedly required to lift very heavy items. One worker said he suffered a suspected broken arm and was signed off work for a month by a doctor, but because the supply company denied workers sick pay he felt that he had to resume work within two weeks.

Most workers signed two-year contracts with the labour supply companies, but many spent less than 12 months at Amazon’s facilities before the work ended, which some likened to being ‘fired’.

The recruitment companies then moved these ‘jobless’ individuals to even worse accommodation, stopped paying salaries, and in some cases food allowances.

Many wanted to return home before their contracts ended but Al-Mutairi managers would not purchase the flight tickets they were legally obliged to provide, and told workers they would have to pay a ‘fine’ of between USD 1,330 and USD 1,600 for exit papers.

Some workers who complained to Amazon were subject to reprisals by the contractors, including one worker who said salaries were deducted after complaints to Amazon about their living conditions and another who was slapped and pushed by an Al-Mutairi supervisor after complaining to Amazon about the water quality in the accommodation.

According to Amnesty International’s report, the vulnerability of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia was well documented before Amazon began operating there in 2020 and was identified in an Amazon risk assessment conducted in 2021, meaning the company knew about the high-risk of labour abuses in the country.

Workers began raising complaints directly with Amazon managers in Saudi Arabia in 2021, including by writing on dedicated white boards in the warehouses, or verbally at daily meetings, yet these were often ignored and the abuses continued into 2023.

Amazon acknowledged that some workers at its Saudi facilities had been mistreated.

“Providing safe, healthy and fair working conditions is a requirement of doing business with Amazon in every country where we operate, and we are deeply concerned that some of our contract workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia … were not treated with the standards we set forth, and the dignity and respect they deserve,” the statement said. “We appreciate their willingness to come forward and report their experience.”

Amazon said it will make sure that workers who paid recruiting fees get their money back.

In its statement to The Guardian, Amazon said that, since it learned about the violations of its standards, it has worked closely with Al-Mutairi “to align on a compliance plan, which they’ve agreed to, that addresses those violations and complies with our standards. This includes ensuring their employees are repaid for any unpaid wages or worker-paid recruitment fees, are provided clean and safe accommodations, and that the vendor is committed to ensuring ongoing protections for workers.”

Amnesty International recommends Amazon urgently investigates working practices across its facilities and supply chains, strengthens due diligence and ensures workers can speak out and be heard without fear of retaliation.

To better safeguard workers’ rights, it also recommends Amazon hires more staff directly and reduces its reliance on labour supply companies, particularly when this poses a higher risk of abuse. When such companies are used, there must be much stricter controls to prevent abuse.

Amazon told Amnesty International that between March and June 2023 it conducted audits of Al-Mutairi and other contractors and found abuses consistent with its findings. Amazon said it recently hired consultants to review supply companies’ labour practices and remedy some abuses, including reimbursing the recruitment fees of those interviewed for the report, although to date none have received any money, it added.

Amnesty is also calling for Amazon to ensure that all contracted workers whose engagement with the corporation has been terminated nonetheless receive their contractually entitled monthly salary and food allowance for the duration of their employment contract, and that those who wish to change employer or return home are issued the necessary documentation, paid all outstanding dues and their end-of-service benefits, and given flight tickets home.

Cockburn said, “It’s time for Amazon to finally put things right for workers who have suffered so much, and for Saudi Arabia to fundamentally reform its exploitative labour system.”

The organisation is also calling on Saudi Arabia to urgently undertake an independent and impartial investigation into the abuses detailed in its report, ensure redress to the victims, hold perpetrators to account and publicly report on the findings and strengthen enforcement of labour laws as well as improve migrant workers’ access to justice, remedy and social protection measures.

It calls on Saudi Arabia to fully dismantle the ‘kafala sponsorship system’ and allow all workers to form and join trade unions. This system gives employers “almost total control” over migrant workers’ employment and immigration status, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

As for Nepal, Amnesty calls on the country to monitor, investigate and sanction the illegal conduct of recruitment agencies that collect fees in excess of the maximum amount established by the government as well as improve efforts to help Nepali workers who are stranded in destination countries and increase embassies’ resources to help migrant workers.

Nepali workers heading to Saudi Arabia are especially vulnerable because Nepal’s government has failed to enforce its policy forbidding recruiting agencies from charging high fees, according to Nepal’s parliament, its supreme court and the US state department.