“Revealed: Amazon linked to trafficking of workers in Saudi Arabia” investigation was named a finalist for several awards, including The Tom Renner Award, The Deadline Club’s 2024 Awards, SABEW’s Best International Investigation, and One World Media Awards for the Refugee Reporting Award category. The investigation had also earned a spot in the GIJN Editor’s Pick for 2023’s Best Arab Investigative Stories.
This story is a collaboration between ICIJ, ARIJ, NBC News, and The Guardian.
The Investigation reveals how current and former workers were misled and exploited by firms that supply labor to Amazon in Saudi Arabia and by their network of recruiting agencies in Nepal.
All the workers said they had to pay fees to recruiters to get hired, ranging from the equivalent of $830 to $2,040, even though fees that large are illegal, according to the Nepali government. To pay those fees, many workers needed to take out loans at high interest rates. They also all said they were duped by recruiters into working for labor supply companies rather than directly for Amazon.