He told of a migrant worker from Nepal who spoke good English and was the only one of five children with a college degree. His family paid a recruitment agent $1,500 for his job, which was more than twice the annual income in Nepal, and they borrowed much of that at a 36 percent annual interest rate.

When the Nepali arrived in Malaysia, his passport was taken from him at the airport, and he has not seen it since, he told the Verité interviewer. “He has now completed 14 months of a three-year contract, and he has not been able to save any money” because he is still paying back the recruitment fees, Mr. Viederman said. The Nepali works 12 hours a day, often seven days a week, and said it would take two years to finish repaying the loan.

“He doesn’t want to be in Malaysia anymore,” Mr. Viederman said. “He wants to quit and return home, but then he would have to pay a hefty fine and purchase his own plane ticket and still have the loan payment hanging over his head. He wasn’t sure if he could get his passport back.”

The report found that 30 percent of foreign workers said they slept in a room with more than eight people, and 43 percent said there was no place where they could safely store their belongings. Twenty-two percent of the workers said they had been deceived about their wages, hours or overtime requirements during the recruitment process.

Mr. Viederman said many workers faced a “one-two punch” — being charged high recruitment fees and then being paid less than they had been promised. He said many workers were told that their wages would be withheld or they would be reported to authorities if they complained or protested.

The Malaysian Embassy in Washington did not respond to inquiries — Tuesday was a national holiday.

Officials from Samsung and Sony did not respond to questions about Malaysia.

Asked about the reports of forced labor, Chris Gaither, a spokesman for Apple, said: “This is an issue we have paid a lot of attention to and done a lot of work on. We were the first electronics company to mandate reimbursement to workers who were charged excessive recruitment fees.”