Saudi Arabia: migrant workers at Carrefour sites exploited and forced to live in squalor - new report

Workers from Nepal, India and Pakistan made to work 16-hour days and threatened with costly lay-offs if they refused to work overtime

Workers report sleeping six or eight to a room, with one describing it as ‘like a cowshed’

‘Inside Carrefour stores, workers are not treated as humans. They treat workers as animals’ - former warehouse picker

Carrefour, a sponsor of the Paris Olympics with an annual turnover of more than €94 billion, says it has launched an internal investigation 

‘Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia continue to be subjected to the country’s kafala sponsorship system, have no guaranteed minimum wage and are prohibited from joining or forming trade unions’ - Marta Schaaf 

Migrant workers contracted to sites in Saudi Arabia franchised by French retail giant Carrefour have been deceived by recruitment agents, made to work excessive hours, denied days off and cheated of their earnings, said Amnesty International today in a new report. 

In a 56-page report - ‘I would fear going to work’: Labour exploitation at Carrefour sites in Saudi Arabia - Amnesty also shows how workers have been made to live in squalid accommodation and to fear being fired if they complained or resisted working overtime.

The research - based on interviews with 17 men from Nepal, India and Pakistan who worked in various Carrefour facilities in Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah between 2021 to 2024 - shows that the abuses suffered by some of the workers are likely to amount to forced labour, including human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation.

The Carrefour Group, which was a sponsor of the 2024 Paris Olympics and has an annual turnover of more than €94 billion - has a franchise agreement with the UAE-based Majid Al Futtaim company which operates Carrefour facilities and stores in Saudi Arabia. Neither the Carrefour Group nor Majid Al Futtaim took adequate action to stop worker abuses or offer redress to workers. 

To secure their jobs the workers paid recruitment agents in their home countries an average fee of £900 and often took on high-interest debt to do so, despite such charges being outlawed by Saudi legislation and prohibited by Majid Al Futtaim’s own policies.

Almost all the workers interviewed by Amnesty were lied to or misled by the agents - sometimes with the involvement of labour supply companies - about the nature and benefits of the jobs in Saudi Arabia, or tricked into believing they were being hired directly by international companies. Many only found out they would be employed by Saudi Arabian supply companies - which are notorious among workers - after paying the fees, by which time most could not recoup the money paid and felt unable to back out. 

In Saudi Arabia, the men were met with arduous work and repeated underpayment. They described regularly working 60-hour weeks, sometimes up to 16 hours a day, especially when business was booming in periods such as “salary weeks” and the month of Ramadan. In breach of both Saudi Arabia’s laws and Majid Al Futtaim’s own policies, workers said managers at the facilities - which included supermarkets and warehouses - would sometimes cancel their weekly rest days. They reported regularly having to walk more than 12 miles per day in their course of their working day.

Anand*, a former warehouse picker, told Amnesty:

“Inside Carrefour stores, workers are not treated as humans. They treat workers as animals. They keep on saying, ‘yallah, yallah’ [‘let’s go’, ‘let’s go’]. They cling to our t-shirt to make us work fast.”

Many of the workers said the hardest part of the experience was not being paid properly for overtime hours as required by national law and company policies. As a result they were often denied dozens of additional hours’ pay a month, amounting to hundreds of pounds each year. Workers described a culture of fear, with those who raised complaints directly with managers at the Carrefour facilities reportedly ignored or told to take up the matter with the labour supply companies. Some workers who did speak out experienced retaliation from the supply companies or Carrefour facility managers, intimidating others into silence. Although Majid Al Futtaim told Amnesty it prohibits retaliation against anyone sharing a “good-faith concern”, workers said if they resisted working extra hours they would be threatened with not being paid or dismissal. 

Meanwhile, accommodation provided by the labour supply companies was often dirty and overcrowded, contrary to Majid Al Futtaim’s requirements. Workers said they slept six or eight to a room, with one describing it as “like a cowshed”.

In response to Amnesty’s findings, Carrefour and Majid Al Futtaim said they’ve launched an internal investigation into the treatment of migrant workers in their Saudi Arabia facilities, while Carrefour has also begun a third-party audit of its franchise partner’s operations. Majid Al Futtaim detailed steps it has taken to remediate abuses since Amnesty first alerted it, including moving some workers to new housing, reviewing policies on overtime and the ban on recruitment fees, increasing the screening of new suppliers and improving access to its employee hotline. 

Marta Schaaf, Amnesty International’s Director of Climate, Economic and Social Justice, and Corporate Accountability, said:

“Workers thought they were opening the door to a better life but instead many were subjected to appalling exploitation and abuse. 

“Carrefour’s inaction meant it failed to prevent this suffering, which for some contracted workers likely amounts to forced labour including human trafficking.

“It is well known that despite some reforms, migrant workers in Saudi Arabia continue to be subjected to the country’s kafala sponsorship system, have no guaranteed minimum wage and are prohibited from joining or forming trade unions. 

“Carrefour and Majid Al Futtaim should act to remedy the abuses - including urgently compensating those affected - and ensure that workers in their operations are never harmed again.

“The high risk of exploitation in Saudi Arabia highlights an undeniable need for fundamental reform of the country’s labour system. 

“The ILO Governing Body should urgently open an investigation into violations of workers’ rights and ensure Saudi Arabia brings its labour laws and practices fully in line with international standards.”

Further case studies

Baburam* told Amnesty:

“It was tough to work that long. But the manager wouldn’t let me go … He would say, ‘You must complete the order process, then you can go’. What could I do? If we didn’t work 15 hours, he would also say, ‘I will terminate you. I won’t pay for your overtime’.”

Being “terminated” from these facilities could result in workers being made “jobless” until their labour supply company found them a new role - often weeks or months later. During this time, the worker would be left with no income from the supply company or support from the Saudi Arabian state.

Gopal* said:

“Had I complained, I could have lost my job. That’s why I couldn’t complain. Once, 14 or 15 workers complained about it, and they were expelled from the job. When a worker loses his job, the supply company makes him jobless for four to five months.”

The experiences of workers interviewed by Amnesty indicates that the two key elements of forced labour - involuntary work and a threat of penalty - are present in Carrefour’s franchise operations in Saudi Arabia. While Carrefour’s policies make clear it is aware of its responsibilities and has committed to upholding international human rights standards, including throughout its franchises and suppliers, Amnesty’s research demonstrates that its due diligence processes are wholly inadequate. This is despite the fact that in Saudi Arabia, the severity and frequency of labour abuses - including forced labour - are acute and well-documented.

*Names of workers have been changed.

Amazon research and landmark ILO complaint

Amnesty’s Carrefour investigation follows a 2023 Amnesty report exposing abuses at Amazon facilities in Saudi Arabia, involving one of the same labour supply companies. Following the investigation Amazon eventually paid more than $1.9 million to reimburse recruitment fees to more than 700 workers. Amnesty’s new report comes just a fortnight before the International Labour Organisation’s governing body will consider a landmark complaint against the Saudi Arabian government regarding wage theft, forced labour and the prohibition of trade unions. The complaint was submitted by the global trade union Building and Wood Workers’ International in June, supported by Amnesty and other organisations.