The Oompa-Loompas are introduced to readers at the very end of chapter fifteen, and the answer to this question can be found at the very start of chapter sixteen. Mr. Wonka states that the Oompa-Loompas that he is employing have been imported straight from Loompaland. He is met with a fair amount of skepticism, yet he insists that the place is real and that the Oompa-Loompas lived a very fearful life there. The area is a jungle area, and the Oompa-Loompas were forced to live in the trees in order to avoid being hunted and killed by hornswogglers, snozzwangers, and whangdoodles. Mr. Wonka tells his guests that the whangdoodles are especially dangerous and hungry. Each whangdoodle can supposedly eat ten Oompa-Loompas at a time:

A whangdoodle would eat ten Oompa-Loompas for breakfast and come galloping back for a second helping.

Mr. Wonka believes that he rescued the Oompa-Loompas from certain death by employing them in his chocolate factory.

Before they embarked upon a career in the manufacture of confectionery, they used to live in Loompaland. When Willy Wonka tells us what Loompaland is like, we can see why the Oompa-Loompas wanted to escape. He presents it as a truly horrible place, disfigured by thick jungles and desolate waste lands. Even worse, Loompaland is infested with scary, vicious monsters who like nothing better than to feast on the steaming entrails of dead Oompa-Lumpas.

The very names of these horrid creatures is enough to make the blood run cold: Hornsnozzlers, Snozzwangers, Vermicious Knids and Whangdoodles. The poor little Oompa-Loompas have no choice but to hide from these savage monsters in tree houses. There they eat green caterpillars, which as you can imagine, taste absolutely revolting. The Oompa-Loompas need a change of diet and scenery. And as they crave cocoa beans, what better place to go to than Willy Wonka's giant chocolate factory.