Amazon sellers linked to Pakistan’s exploitative garment factories: A disturbing glimpse into forced labour and wage theft

ISLAMABAD: A new report from the campaign group Labour Behind the Label (LBL) has exposed widespread labour violations in Pakistan-based garment factories supplying Amazon Marketplace sellers, as reported by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre. The investigation reveals routine exploitation, underpaid workers, and systemic abuse occurring in a country that has long turned a blind eye to workers’ rights.

The months-long investigation identified three sellers–Chums, Ice Cool Fashion, and A2Z 4 Kids–whose products trace back to factories in Pakistan, specifically Faisalabad, a city notorious for its poorly regulated textile industry. Researchers interviewed 40 workers, collecting harrowing accounts of forced overtime, wage theft, and inhumane working conditions.

Workers reported being forced to work well beyond legal hours. On top of their 8 AM to 5:30 PM shifts, many are made to work two to four additional hours daily, often without the legally required overtime pay. Pakistani law mandates double wages for overtime, yet employers flout these regulations with impunity. Such blatant violations raise serious questions not only about factory management but also about Pakistan’s utter failure to enforce labour laws.

One worker, Hussain, told Dazed, “We are barely surviving. I live in a two-room house with my five children. I hardly manage my utilities on my salary, and we are living hand to mouth.” Another worker, Abdul, reported a monthly income of just £86, supporting a family of seven. Their stories, as detailed in the report, expose a systemic collapse of labour protections in Pakistan’s garment sector, where poverty-level wages, lack of education, and zero accountability are the norm, not the exception.

Despite the scale of these violations, none of the three implicated brands responded to LBL’s requests for comment. A Pakistani factory manager, however, dismissed the allegations, offering the same tired denial: “We will fight and prove our innocence.” Yet the mounting evidence suggests otherwise.

According to LBL, the real culprit lies in Amazon’s reckless third-party seller model, which enables such exploitation while deflecting responsibility.

Amazon requires sellers to sign agreements promising that goods are not made with forced or child labour, yet fails to actively enforce these commitments, especially in countries like Pakistan, where labour abuses are easy to hide and harder to prove.

“The fact is that Amazon has deliberately set up a business model that is creating this risk but is not addressing it,” said Anne Bryher, LBL’s policy lead. Campaigners argue that tiny fashion brands with hidden suppliers enjoy impunity while sourcing from places where human rights violations are ignored as a matter of national practice.

According to Dazed, other platforms like Shein have already admitted issues in their supply chains and implemented corrective actions. Meanwhile, Pakistan continues to be a breeding ground for exploitative, profit-driven manufacturing, propped up by weak governance, poor regulation, and a culture of denial.
Unless Amazon enforces robust audits and Pakistan faces real international pressure to reform, Pakistani factories will remain hubs of exploitation, fuelling global fashion with misery, sweat, and silence. (ANI)