Human trafficking in Nike's sweatshop factory in Malaysia

STOP PRESS: Viet workers in Malaysia are sent back to Vietnam if they organise a strike. In Vietnam, recently people were sent to jail for up to 9 years for organising a strike.
***** Please join the protest at LabourStart: http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=798

* UPDATED 31 MARCH 2009: Now it's a Top-5 news finalist in Logie Award (3rd May 2009) * Mike Duffy of Australian TV Channel 7's exposed the "human trafficking on a massive scale" involving Viet and other workers at Nike's sweatshop contract factories in Malaysia. The 3 news items ran on 21-22 July & 22 Aug 2008.

A contractor making clothes for sportswear giant, Nike, has been caught using forced labor in Malaysia.

An undercover investigation by 7 News discovered factory workers being paid a pittance and forced to

live in squalor while NIke stars own a fortune.

This is what Nike boasts to the world -

My better is better than your better.

But there are two sides to Nike - the public face and the hidden misery.

Tonight, the evidence.

It's no great secret that designer sportswear is made in remote factories by poorly paid workers but

what's going on here in Malaysia is something altogether more sinister.

It's human trafficking on a massive scale.

Here's how it works. Recruiters in poverty-stricken countries offer desparate

men and women guaranteed work in Malaysia.

But there's a catch - an upfront fee, the equivalent of a year's wages. Now they're in debt.

On arrival, their passports are confiscated. Now they're trapped.

Then, like these Vietnamese workers we met at a secret location,

they must sign three-year contracts in a language they can't read.

It's a virtual prison.

To leave, they must buy out their debt and buy back their passports.

But they are paid so little, escape is impossible.

What they say in here is how they've been trapped and they've been lied to.

An hour's drive from Kuala Lumpur is Hi-Tech Apparel, reputedly the largest t-shirt manufacturer

in Asia. It's a Nike contractor. Cameras are banned here but posing as a fashion buyer,

I gained access to the factory. Nike signs are everywhere, we saw them on every floor.

We then sought out the living quarters of the foreign workers.

A group of Bangladeshis pleaded with us to come in.

We're led down a filthy corridor past people sleeping, people eating.

They're crammed like cattle - 26 men per room.

A staggering 350 Bangladeshi workers live in this one tin shed.

Why's it no good?

Because there's so many people, no enough room. So many people living here.

There are similar barns for people from Burma and Vietnam and a separate barn for the women.

But conditions are even worse outside.

So, this is where you bathe? This is the shower?

This single trough is where hundreds of men bathe.

Next to the trough, the toilets. Next to the toilets is where they prepare their food.

For these men, there is no escape.

That is one of the most squalid, heart-breaking sights imaginable.

There's hundreds of men all living on top of each other.

There's a searing heat, an overpowering stench. It makes you feel really angry about what's going on

here and also just overwhelmingly sad.

They work six days a week for just 45 Australian dollars - that's less than the cost of a single

Nike t-shirt.

They have no way of escape. So that is absolutely forced labor.

Nike's hypocrisy was displayed on each level of the factory floor.

Nike issued a statement this morning branding the housing -

It states:

Nike pays Tiger Woods about 22 million dollars a year to be the face of the Nike swoosh.

But these men, the real faces of Nike, get less than six dollars a day to live like this.

Mike Duffy, 7 News.

Sportswear giant, Nike is moving hundreds of workers to better housing in Malaysia

after 7 News revealed one of its contractors is using forced labor to make its clothing.

Australian human right activists are also taking legal action.

These are the pictures that shocked human rights activists and Nike executives.

Men from impoverished countries living in appalling conditions in Malaysia, working for a Nike

contractor. They're trapped because their employer has taken their passports -

It's going to become public knowledge and it's going to impact their brand right around the world.

Nike knows that, which is why immediately following our report on 7 News last night,

Nike flew an investigation team to Malaysia.

And in a written statement, it declared their housing unacceptable and promised to move hundreds

of workers out of over-crowded accommodation.

There's so many people, no enough room. So many people living here.

But Nike executives aren't the only ones to respond.

Spokesman for the Australian-Vietnamese community say relocating workers is a side issue.

They've hired lawyers, demanding Nike's contractor give foreign workers back their passports

and allow them to leave.

And if workers want their passports back then the employers must give them back.

There is no excuse for keeping them.

Australian unions have also joined the cause.

They use their workers like slavery.

But as Nike knows, it's the opinion of customers that really counts.

I think global consumers don't know their own power and one of the things that I think is hopefully

coming is a day when the global consumers realize just how powerful they are.

Mike Duffy, 7 News.

Hundreds of workers making clothes for a Nike contractor in Malaysia have been freed from

squalid living conditions and moved to much better accommodation after 7 News uncovered the scandal.

The exposure forced the sportswear giant to order a fair deal for the workers which will cost millions.

It's the house-proud grin of a young man in his new home.

Before we exposed sportswear giant Nike, and the Malaysian contractor

that makes it's t-shirts, he was forced to live in a cramped filthy shed.

1200 workers living like slaves.

But now, thanks to 7 News, they're free!

Our story forced Nike to act. These workers had come to Malaysia from poorer countries -

many having paid a year's wages to land the job. On arrival, their passports were taken away.

To escape, they had to pay back their debts and buy back their passports.

On 45 dollars a week? Impossible - until we revealed what was going on.

Since our story aired, this shamful housing has been closed down. See these chains?

The building is set for demolition and the workers have been moved to private apartments.

This is one of 37 sites in Malaysia Nike suspects of similar practices.

Nike executives refused to speak other than on the phone from their distant US headquarters.

I can't begin to tell you how disturbed and upset we are.

They've now been moved from this -

to apartments like this -

I think Channel 7 has proven once again that the media in a free country like Australia can be

used to help people who are disadvantaged and exploited.

Nike and its contractor have also promised a refund of the 400 dollar foreign worker fee,

a refund of recruitment fees, unrestricted access to passports, and a free flight home for

anyone who wants to leave.

It will cost bosses millions. The impact on these workers - priceless. Mike Duffy, 7 News.