Media investigations in August and September 2020 reveal labour exploitation of migrant farmworkers in Almería, southern Spain. Alleged violations include poor working conditions, excessive working hours, wages below the legal minimum and overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions. Further, since the COVID-19 pandemic workers report a lack of adequate safety protections and being denied PPE.

A supply chain investigation by Ethical Consumer has identified supermarkets Sainsbury's, Tesco, Aldi, Waitrose, The Co-op, Lidl, Morrisons, Asda, Marks & Spencer and Whole Foods as sourcing from Almería. According to Ethical Consumer, although all the major UK supermarkets claim to have adequate policies in place, they are failing to protect workers in their supply chains. They asked the supermarkets to respond to the situation in Almería, including listing any measures that they take in order to avoid workers rights issues. The responses can be found here.