Only two of 100 endure sweatshop simulation in human trafficking awareness campaign
NGO campaign aims to improve awareness on human trafficking and slave labour
At a "sweatshop" in North Point, dozens sit around tables, screwing together nuts and bolts in an overnight shift.
Food and water are not allowed, nor are toilet breaks.
The participants were there for Asia's first slave-labour simulation, hosted by NGOs to raise funds while allowing people to experience what it is like to toil in a sweatshop.
The conditions were clearly better than actual sweatshops. Still, the repetitive assembling action and long hours proved too hard for most.
While about 100 people dropped in and took part for varying lengths of time between 8pm on Friday and 6am yesterday, only two people completed the 10-hour challenge without any sleep, their fingers stiff and blackened by the constant twisting of screws by the end.
Asked why he endured the process, one of the two survivors of the ordeal, Kim Kennelley, said he wanted to experience what it was like "to be forgotten, and left behind [doing this] with complete hopelessness".