Forced CriminalityArchive 2008–2016

Forced Criminality in Kepong (2008)

A forced criminality case from 2008 in Kepong, Malaysia.

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Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don’t have a verifiable source on file yet. Know one?

What happened

Hytex Factory is one of the largest t-shirt companies in Malaysia, along with other parts of the world. They had contracts with Nike, Disney, Gap, ELLE, Asics, Levi's, Warner Brothers, Ellers and others. Workers came from Burma, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Sri Linka. Once there, their passports were confiscated, they were in debt bondage from recruitment fees, forced to live in small, dirty quarters (about 25 to a room and 350 people to one bathroom) and forced to sign a three-year contract in a language they did not understand, trapping them their for several years, unable to pay off their debts with the minute wages they were given.

Response and intervention

Once the accusations were backed up, Nike made sure to reimburse all of the workers and help them return home. Australia's Channel 7 news was tipped off by the Committee to Protect Vietnamese Workers. They were reimbursed for their lost wages and overtime, for travel fees, put in transition houses if needed, given back their passports, informed of a 24 hour Nike hotline along with written and verbal communication of their situation and legal rights. Nike and the Hytex Factory. Trung Doan and others of the Committee to Protect Vietnamese Workers discovered the sweatshop after interviewing approximately 100 Vietnamese workers in the area.

Nearby cases

All 8 in Malaysia →

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Kuala Lumpur, Northern Perlis, Malaysia, 2010

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2 sourcesArchive 2008–2016