Between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (the Resource Centre) recorded 665 cases of alleged abuse of migrant workers globally in our Migrant Worker Allegations Database (the Database).
These cases span all sectors, all abuses and all regions of the world, from climate-displaced Nepali workers then hit by the impacts of climate change on Gulf construction sites, to Bangladeshi women workers toiling for American household name fashion brands and British retailers in Jordanian garment factories.
The top three value chains profiting from abuse globally were agri-food supply chains (in 32% of cases), construction and engineering (in 20% of cases), and manufacturing (in 12% of cases). A total of 489 named companies were linked to cases in 2024, from multinational buyers at the top of global supply chains to direct employers and labour suppliers in destination countries, and recruitment agencies in origin countries.
However, companies remained unidentified in 301 (45%) cases as under-reporting, opaque supply chains and fear of retaliation and reprisal for workers frustrated accountability efforts. Protections and remedy for migrant workers are within reach of both companies and governments in origin and destination countries: migrant worker-centred risk assessment, human rights due diligence and commitment to remedy are imperative considering the reality for migrant supply chain workers as revealed by the Database findings. See our recommendations to companies here.
Explore this webpage to read more on the daily threats to migrants’ labour rights, including the abuse being perpetrated, destination countries, origin countries and the migration corridors featured most frequently. We also spotlight key cases that reflect the intersecting vulnerabilities and pressures on migrant workers, and seek to highlight their voices alongside these cases. Since January 2022, our Migrant Worker Allegations Database has monitored information on alleged human rights abuses of migrant workers toiling in supply chains across the globe.
As we look ahead to the rest of 2025, already many of the drivers both of migration and of abuse documented in 2024 appear set to worsen. Findings from the Database reflect the conflict and instability, climate change impacts and precarious working arrangements which lie at the root of distressed migration, human trafficking and abuse of migrant labour. The abuse documented in this analysis speaks to the very worst impacts of unregulated corporate action and lack of accountability.
In Europe, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) stands on a precipice – a hard-won battle to regulate the worst effects of the market is far from over. In the USA, the new administration’s first weeks have sent clear threats to the status and livelihoods of migrant workers, especially, but not only the undocumented. Some of these will be an enormous logistical challenge, some are meeting determined resistance from business and workers’ organisations alike, while others are being challenged in courts. Nevertheless, the administration appears determined to act at speed to create ‘facts on the ground’. In 2024, the United States accounted for 94 cases of alleged abuse alone – the highest number for one country – with many of the linked sectors employing migrants in essential jobs.
Despite this catalogue of abuse, there are moves around the world to protect migrant workers and to expunge human trafficking and forced labour from supply chains: the US Tariff Act; the EU Import Ban; action by responsible investors to engage investee companies. These moves by government and the private sector to curtail abuse of this highly vulnerable population demonstrate better practice is both possible but also profitable. These efforts are bolstered by workers themselves (see below).
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Who are the migrant workers impacted in the cases?
- The Database records abuse against migrant workers moving both internationally (estimated to be 167.7 million by the UN) and within borders, recognising that for some national economies, internal migrants play a crucial role and are subject to many of the same vulnerabilities as international migrants.
- While estimates find that just under half of migrant workers are women, three quarters (77%) of all cases in which gender was known impacted male workers, while women workers were visible in only one third (32%) of cases. Our Database should therefore be seen as the tip of the iceberg; businesses must make efforts to understand how factors including “hidden”, feminised work, heightened fear of retaliation and incomplete data collection hide women and the experiences of female workforces.
- Where possible, we also collect data on the migration status of workers, seeking to highlight where undocumented workers are impacted by abuse. In most cases (351) this information was not made explicit, but of the remainder, documented workers were impacted in 71% of cases, while undocumented workers were impacted in one third (32%).
Abuse reported by workers was multifaceted, with human rights violations tracked in the cases often occurring concurrently and leading to complex needs and impacts. Overall, the most frequently cited category of abuse was violations of employment standards, followed by violations of occupational health and safety standards, unfair recruitment practices, verbal or physical abuse in the workplace or accommodation, including intimidation, barriers to access remedy, and precarious or poor living standards. Forced labour indicators are present across the data, including wage theft, excessive working hours, and abusive living conditions.
The workers most likely to report abuse were from countries classified by the World Bank as lower and upper middle income across the Global South, yet suffered exploitative labour and recruitment conditions toiling in high income countries (where an estimated 68% of international migrant workers are located) across the Global North. Where companies could be identified and linked to cases, they were more likely to be headquartered in high income countries. The USA accounted for both the highest number of cases by destination country globally (94 cases) and US-headquartered companies were also most frequently linked to cases during 2024 (in 164 cases). Findings clearly underscore a trend whereby profits from global supply chains, built off the back of exploited migrant labour, are siphoned off by the largest multinationals headquartered in the wealthiest nations.
Protest and resistance
The Database reflects an almost incalculable scale of abuse perpetrated every day against some of the world’s most vulnerable and hidden supply chain workers. However, it also reflects the resilience of migrants in many workplaces, who continued to protest abuse even when workers’ access to fundamental association and assembly rights was restricted. Thirty-five cases of worker protests were tracked in 17 countries, most frequently in the construction sector, cleaning and maintenance, platform delivery, and apparel manufacturing.
Alongside the catalogue of abuses, we saw how creativity and power manifested when migrant workers were able and supported to speak up, organise, demand and fight for fundamental labour rights (see below). But protests and strike action were also symptomatic of corporate failure to provide timely remediation, when pressure from the public, investors, buyers or civil society was needed. Too often, employers were deliberately or negligently slow to respond to alleged abuse, instead hiding behind complex business relationships to divert responsibility onto other actors, often smaller supply chain actors with the fewest resources to remedy abuse.
Corporate accountability: Top perpetrators of abuse
During 2024, 489 named companies were linked to 665 recorded cases in the database; companies remained unidentified in 45% (301) of cases. Abuse tracked in 2024 cuts across a very large group of companies and all supply chains around the world.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) was linked to the highest number of cases for one company, reflecting the breadth of its interests in companies and projects undertaking major works in the Kingdom, often subjecting low-paid labourers to some of the worst forms of labour abuse. Social media giant Meta was linked to the second highest number of cases, reflecting its growing role as a platform used by unscrupulous recruiters in migration corridors including fraudulent recruitment to Russia where Nepalis and Kenyans were deployed as part of the war effort, and Indonesian farmworkers responding to advertisements for grape-pickers in Australia on Facebook. 2024 also saw protests among Uber riders, citing poverty wages and dangerously long working hours, and exploitative conditions for Carrefour warehouse workers exposed in the supermarket’s Saudi Arabia operations.
Companies were invited to respond when they had not otherwise provided comment to the media or to NGOs documenting abuse. The Resource Centre did not seek response to cases regarding filed lawsuits or judicial decisions.
- The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (the Resource Centre) recorded 665 cases of alleged abuse of migrant workers between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024.
- The most frequently cited category of abuse – as we found in 2023 – was violations of employment standards (seen in 61% of cases), followed by breaches of occupational health and safety standards in 39% of cases (262) and unfair recruitment practices in 36% of cases (241):
- 218 deaths were recorded across 13% of cases (89) during 2024.
- Wage theft remained the top issue for workers, reported in 34% of cases (229).
- Recruitment fee-charging was reported in 26% of cases (170).
- Intimidation in the workplace was reported in 22% of cases (149).
- The Asia-Pacific region featured as the largest region of worker origin, in 56% of cases. It was also again the top receiving region, accounting for 37% of cases by destination country.
- Nine of the top 10 destination countries are classified by the World Bank as high income; by contrast, all of the top 10 origin countries were countries the World Bank classifies as lower and upper middle income.
- Where companies could be linked to the cases, these were more likely to be headquartered in high income countries.
- The top three sectors most frequently linked to migrant worker abuse were:
- Agri-food supply chains in 32% of cases: agriculture and fishing (162 cases), processing and packaging (40), and distribution and retail (16)
- Construction and engineering (20% of cases)
- Manufacturing (12% of cases)
- Three Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) and attacks on human rights defenders were recorded relating to migrant worker abuse in Cameroon, Malaysia and the UK.
Context: Conflict, climate and government migration policies
In 2024, intersecting global crises were apparent through the cases we tracked: conflict zones expanded and violence intensified, climate breakdown was increasingly cited as a migration driver but also exacerbated dangerous weather conditions for workers in destination country, and discriminatory government immigration policies – bolstered by far-right rhetoric and populism – exacerbated migrants’ vulnerability to exploitation.
Conflict and military regimes
Conflict and military regimes
2024 saw conflict zones expand and violence intensify, exacerbating instability for often already-marginalised populations around the world. Local workers were forcibly displaced from their homes, while companies, both directly benefitting from war efforts (defence and manufacturing) and otherwise (construction and agriculture), sought to replace them with a ready supply of cheap migrant labour, sometimes inadequately informed or trained to work in a conflict zone. In total, at least 21 cases and 13 deaths were linked to conflict.
Israel's war on Gaza
Palestinians’ Israeli work permits were arbitrarily cancelled following the events of 7 October 2023; the resulting drop in ready labour supply has since fuelled labour abuse and unfair recruitment among newly arrived migrants, largely from South and Southeast Asia. High unemployment rates in India and Thailand, for example, were cited as significant migration drivers to Israel by international trade unions who critiqued the intergovernmental agreements Israel has secured to prop up its labour force. Agriculture and construction have benefitted from new agreements, while workers’ social protections suffered. Malawian farmworkers who travelled to Israel to fill the labour gap were arrested and deported after abandoning their farms amid wage theft. The Moldovan government suspended its labour deal with Israel after alleging that Moldovans were placed in “high-risk conflict zones” by employers withholding passports. As Israel undertook drone attacks on Lebanon, migrant workers in both countries came under direct fire. A Bangladeshi café worker died in an air strike on Beirut; he was unable to leave his job without the required papers and had become undocumented after arrival. Shockingly, four Thai farmworkers died after being employed in a border area Israel had declared “off-limits to its own civilians”.
Russian invasion of Ukraine
“The Russians just commanded us from behind. We were like their shield…They [Russian commanders] even make us go and inspect enemy grounds, which is very scary.” – Nepali migrant worker deployed by the Russian military
In Russia, workers from across South Asia, Central and East Africa found themselves deployed on the frontline in Ukraine and working in Russian factories after ostensibly being recruited into jobs in other sectors. Indian workers reported deceptive recruitment and were rushed through unsafe combat training; social media platforms featured heavily in recruitment drives, hosting both real and fraudulent advertisements. Workers also reported being “handed over” to the Russian military for deployment after being found without correct immigration documentation in neighbouring Belarus.
❗Allegation spotlight: Deceptive recruitment and social media platforms
The Resource Centre tracked a case of 200 women from Central and East African countries recruited via a programme promising hospitality and catering roles in response to Russian labour shortages. Answering adverts on Facebook, TikTok and Telegram to work in weapons factories, they worked long hours under constant surveillance and suffered injuries from caustic chemicals. In another case, Nepali, Tajik and Afghan migrant men recruited via platforms including TikTok described being promised wages and Russian citizenship for fighting in the Russian army. On arrival, wages were unpaid, and workers were deployed after little training. Similarly, Indian workers recruited via YouTube were also reportedly taken to the frontline after applying for jobs they believed to be safe, including as security guards. Some workers recruited this way reportedly died fighting for the Russian army. Responses from Meta and TikTok can be read in full on our website; Google and Telegram did not respond.
2021 Myanmar Coup
“I’m really afraid of being arrested and sent back to Myanmar. The lives of returning CDM staff like me would be in danger,”
“If I go back to Myanmar, I’ll be forced to serve in the military. If that happens, no one could support my family. So I’ve decided to stay here and face any difficulties, no matter what happens, in order to support my family.” – Undocumented workers from Myanmar in Malaysia
Four years after the February 2021 coup, Myanmar workers overseas are under increasing pressure from the actions of the military authorities, who have upped conscription rates, leaving workers in fear of refoulement. The 12 cases of abuse we tracked impacting Myanmar overseas workers offer a glimpse of the pressures facing workers in destination countries including China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. From the end of 2023, the military sought to take a 25% cut from remittances as migrant workers in countries including Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand were forced to transfer salaries through a banking system at an exchange rate lower than the market rate, and double taxed. From the start of 2024, overseas Myanmar workers reportedly refused to pay income tax, including those who refused to fund an “illegitimate military regime”. By May, 250,000 workers in Thailand were reportedly left in “legal limbo” as their Myanmar government-issued visas expired, with no information on reissuance. By the end of the year, labour agencies were ordered to comply with the new laws on remittance and ultimately also to bring workers on expired contracts home for conscription.
Climate crisis and extreme weather events
Climate crisis and extreme weather events
“In my hometown, we rely on rainwater to farm. But these days, it’s not certain when it will rain. When there is drought or too much rain, we cannot grow crops. And to survive, we have to go abroad.” – Aramco employee from Nepal
According to the ILO, “billions” of workers were exposed to hazards exacerbated by climate crises during 2024. Climate change continues to wreak havoc on migrants’ working conditions, driving displacement from and within disaster-hit regions, and putting pressure on workers caught up in extreme weather events in destination countries. Climate breakdown is increasingly cited as a reason to migrate, leaving behind devastated livelihoods. Indian workers deployed on the frontline in Ukraine with the Russian army, Nepali workers on construction sites under extreme heat in the Gulf, and sugar cane workers in the Indian state of Maharashtra all reported being displaced from their homes by extreme weather events or losing their livelihoods to climate change.
In destination countries, migrant labourers in precarious or informal sectors were disproportionately impacted. Lacking social security cover, informal and gig workers were among those least able to prioritise their health over a potential loss of earnings and were acutely exposed to the physical impacts of the climate crisis.
“It is also clear that workers will not prioritise their health over their livelihoods during these extremely hot days, as this will lead to loss of wages and that is something they cannot afford,” - Dr Santasabuj Das, Director at the National Institute of Occupational Health
Workers reported heat exposure in the workplace or accommodation in 38 cases, 12 of which were linked to cases in which workers later died. Heatwaves in India (Gujurat, Haryana), South Korea and the USA left migrant workers in agriculture and the manufacturing, construction, entertainment and garment industries working under hazardous conditions, including air pollution. Workers in the Gulf routinely reported symptoms of heat-related illness while human rights experts decried government regulations as inadequate and called for extensions. Twelve of the 38 cases in which heat exposure was reported impact workers in the United States, and 11 cases impacted migrants in one of the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries. At the same time, industrial climate mitigation measures, including “climate-resilient” greenhouses in the United States, also exacerbated risk to workers from heat-related illness, injuries and deaths.
Besides heatwaves, other extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense around the world: 2024 was no exception.
❗Allegation spotlight: Impact Plastics, USA
In the United States, workers including migrants from Mexico were caught up in Hurricane Helene when employer Impact Plastics allegedly kept them working in the factory despite rising floodwaters which engulfed the factory. Workers allege there was no emergency evacuation plan in place, despite the factory being in a federally-designated flood plain. While other businesses shut down to protect employees amid rising floodwaters and its own senior management team purportedly “stealthily exited the building”, Impact Plastics reportedly instructed work to continue, saying it “wanted to meet order deadlines”. These claims are brought in a lawsuit against Impact Plastics and its CEO, filed after four workers died. The company has denied that workers were forced to keep working and said they were evacuated 45 minutes before the flood force hit the factory’s industrial park. Separately, government agencies reportedly prioritised support for business owners in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, leaving farm and forestry workers, the majority of whom are migrant workers on the H-2A temporary migration scheme, “overlooked”.
In the UAE, severe flooding led to an outbreak of dengue fever among migrants housed in industrial zones after the government cleanup prioritised areas housing Emiratis over those housing low-paid migrant labourers. Healthcare experts said workers struggled to access medical care and information on dengue, which for many workers evoked fearful memories of the Covid-19 pandemic response. Ironically, the dual impact of weather disasters on migrants is often brought into stark relief during the cleanup and reconstruction process – another sector reliant on migrant workers, often undocumented and without adequate protections.
"I was feeling so sick. My body was burning… I asked my employers for some money so I could go to a better private clinic because I was feeling really bad, but they said that it was just all in my head and I should just rest. They were acting like they were doing me a favour for letting me rest." – Pakistani female worker who contracted dengue amid the 2024 flooding and epidemic in UAE
Government migration policy
Government migration policy
Throughout 2024, far-right populism gained momentum across the world, and migrants were targeted by increasingly xenophobic rhetoric and discriminatory policies. At the highest level, such as in elections in Europe, South Africa and the USA, politicians dehumanised migrants and catalysed cultures of intolerance and racism, while migrants were systematically denied rights afforded to citizens. Temporary migration schemes particularly exacerbated migrants’ vulnerability to exploitation. As governments fail to protect migrants within their jurisdictions, companies must close the gap by recognising risks specific to migrant workers in their policies and practices.
“We are like slaves tied to an employer. This is modern slavery in an indirect manner […] The closed permit gives employers the opportunity to abuse us. The abuse starts as the employers […] pay so much money [to hire someone], they consider we must do what they want. They think ‘I can’t spend my money for nothing; you are going to do what I want‘” – Stacey, Cameroonian worker with a closed permit to work in Canada’s agriculture sector
The United States accounted for the highest number of tracked cases of migrant worker abuse in 2024 (94 cases), which also saw a polarised election where a legitimate democratic debate on migration was corrupted with disinformation and dehumanising rhetoric, including threats of ‘mass deportations’. That 49% of US-tracked cases impacted farmworkers was especially concerning given the country’s longstanding reliance on undocumented farm labour. The new administration’s policies are a cause for concern and will undoubtedly heighten workers’ risk of human rights abuse.
Alongside anti-migrant rhetoric, governments in higher income destination countries continued to use temporary labour migration schemes that structurally discriminate against migrants, including denying them adequate housing, the freedom to change jobs, or access to healthcare. Employer-tied visas, used on many temporary schemes, exacerbated migrants’ risk of abuse by making workers partially or fully dependent on their employer’s approval to change jobs. We tracked at least 11 cases in which documented workers, including workers on temporary schemes, were unable or struggled to change jobs despite abusive conditions. Employer-tied visas also enabled companies to push migrants deliberately or through negligence into undocumented status, putting them at risk of deportation. We tracked 19 cases in which workers became undocumented after employers unfairly dismissed them or failed to renew their visas. Many workers remained silent following abuse.
“He threatened to kick us out of the job when we asked for our delayed salary. Then we didn’t say anything. We don’t want to lose jobs.” – Hunger Station gig worker in Saudi Arabia
The continued use of the Kafala system in the Middle East exacerbated migrants’ vulnerability to exploitation. Civil society organisations said that reforms in Qatar and Saudi Arabia fell short of the significant changes required: migrants continued to report abuse across Gulf states, with 93 cases tracked in 2024. In December, FIFA awarded Saudi Arabia the 2034 men’s football World Cup; the Resource Centre highlighted the need for companies seeking to cash in on the tournament to be alert to the risk of abuse. In Canada and the USA, temporary migration schemes were also heavily criticised. For example, in August, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery called Canada's temporary programme a "breeding ground” for slavery. Similar concerns regarding temporary schemes were seen in Asia, Europe and the Pacific.
Some governments made efforts to protect migrant workers. Japan’s notorious Technical Intern Training Programme was partially reformed to create pathways to permanent residency and allow greater job mobility. Australia also launched a two-year pilot for its new “workplace justice visa”, allowing migrants to stay in the country for six months while pursuing labour claims. However, examples of better practice were limited globally and more must be done to reshape migration policy. While some companies joined the call for reforms, such as responsible recruitment demands from 50 global apparel brands sourcing from Taiwan, such examples were few and far between. Collective pressure from companies at the top of supply chains is urgently needed.
Issue snapshot
Explore other trends we saw in 2024, including worker deaths amid abusive conditions in the workplace and accommodation, manifestations of worker power and protest, and intersecting vulnerabilities and precarity for migrants in the gig economy.
Fatalities
Fatalities
During 2024, we tracked at least 218 migrant worker deaths either in the workplace or in employer-provided accommodation or transportation. Deaths occurred in 89 (13%) cases and ranged from individual instances to mass casualties, most often occurring together with occupational health and safety breaches (71 cases), barriers to access remedy and injuries (18 cases), when workers lacked information (13 cases), were exposed to heat (12 cases), or worked unreasonable hours with inadequate rest (eight cases). We recorded just one fatality reported as a work-related illness, reflecting findings from a recent global study that migrant workers are likelier to die from causes such as falls or assaults than disease-related deaths when compared with local workers. Three fires – two in workplaces, one in accommodation – accounted for 68 deaths, followed by eight workplace explosions killing at least 23 people, and 29 accidents resulting in at least 49 deaths.
❗ Allegation spotlight: Aricell Manufacturing, South Korea
The deadliest explosion – in an Aricell lithium battery factory – revealed serious risks to subcontracted migrant workers in South Korea’s manufacturing sector. Twenty-three workers, including 17 Chinese and one Laotian worker, died in the incident, which highlighted the disproportionate risks for migrant workers to the country. Reports suggested that workers were employed illegally by subcontractors through a temporary “dispatch” system: a recent poll found that most workers are unaware of the illegality of this arrangement in direct manufacturing. More than half of the 103 migrant workers at the factory were dispatched contract workers from Meicell, a manpower company which said it cannot instruct or visit workers while on sites where they are deployed, amid reports that both Meicell and Aricell had suggested the other entity was ultimately responsible. Meicell’s reported failure to enrol workers in an insurance scheme was also reportedly symptomatic of a broader trend. Besides safety violations, investigations found that temporary workers were inadequately trained and 321 workers were owed outstanding wages. Government officials had reportedly not inspected worksite safety at Aricell for the previous five years. Aricell’s Chief Executive was later arrested over the fire, after police found the factory had rushed to meet production deadlines.
In some of the most egregious instances of worker fatalities, seven workers were victims of assault by fellow workers or by company representatives. One Chinese worker was fraudulently recruited onto a scam compound in Myanmar – he witnessed four fellow workers who tried to escape being shot by compound guards. In the UAE, a security company official ordered guards to beat a fellow employee to death; 16 Kenyan workers who reported the incident to police were detained for being undocumented as a reprisal for speaking up.
❗ Allegation Spotlight: Fine Apparel, Jordan
“It is a living hell working for this factory” – South Asian worker at Fine Apparel
A series of at least three suicides by Bangladeshi workers at a garment factory in Jordan highlighted the devastating impact of exploitative conditions. Allegations of abuse came to light in April with further details exposed in August, including excessive production targets and punitive wage deductions, 16-hour days and seven-day weeks, and sexual harassment all widespread at the factory. Reports of earlier suicides from 2023 also emerged, with anonymous whistleblowers warning of the devastation wrought by conditions of forced labour, including intimidation and document retention for “thousands” of workers. The factory was reported to be producing clothes for American Eagle, Columbia Sportswear and Under Armour, which were sold by UK retailers. Buyers of these three brands, including Harrods, JD Sports, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Next provided responses; Cotswold Outdoors, Footasylum, Sports Direct and Everton Football Club (whose sponsor Figs previously bought from Fine Apparel), did not. Marks & Spencer said "while Columbia is a third-party brand selling on our website, none of the products currently available on M&S.com have a Jordan certificate of origin, however we will continue to monitor the situation". JD Sports said “JD Sports does not directly source any direct product from Jordan.”
Top incidents linked to worker fatalities:
- Fire (68 cases)
- Accident (49 cases)
- Explosion (23 cases)
- Chemical poisoning (19 cases)
- Conflict (13 cases)
- Heat Exposure (11 cases)
- Assault; illness/injury (7 cases each)
- Building collapse (5 cases)
- Extreme weather event (4 cases)
- Suicide (4 cases)
Most lethal sectors
- Manufacturing accounted for 44 deaths across 15 cases. This included six factory explosions caused by chemicals or dust buildups contravening health and safety standards in India, Malaysia and Thailand. In a particularly egregious case, four Mexican manufacturing workers at an Impact Plastics plant drowned after being caught up in Hurricane Helene floods in Tennessee, USA. In the wake of 19 deaths in an explosion at a factory in India, workers told investigators that auditors did not meet with or speak with workers, who were sent out of the plant. Auditors failed to detect alleged conditions including 12-hour long shifts, extreme production targets or lapses in health and safety measures ahead of the explosion.
- Construction accounted for one in five abuse cases overall but one third (29) of cases involving fatalities, almost all occurring on worksites in Asia. Conditions for migrant construction workers in Singapore were in the spotlight in 2024, with seven out of 18 cases tracked in the country linked to fatalities on construction sites. Globally, a total of 39 construction workers died: seven construction workers died falling from height on sites, 12 died being hit by machinery or vehicles, and 14 died from other accidents. In an especially devastating case, undocumented migrants from Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho and Zimbabwe were among 34 people killed in a building collapse in South Africa. Families had little recourse to remedy and social protections, with no employers identified and held accountable.
- Twenty-two agricultural workers died across 18 cases, mostly on farms in Europe and North America, and accounting for the most deaths linked to heat exposure. As the climate crisis worsens, both outdoor and indoor working will be at risk from unsafe heat and humidity levels. Yet a lack of reliable data on heat-related deaths globally has been blamed for undermining mitigation efforts for vulnerable workforces, including migrant workers.
Worker protests
Worker protests
“The boss has brought shame to the Chinese people abroad! The workers' wages have been delayed again and again. Can you blame the workers for making trouble?" – Chinese worker in Indonesia
Throughout 2024, we tracked a small but vocal minority of 35 cases of migrants mobilising in protest against human rights violations. These ranged from Vietnamese workers assembling outside company headquarters in Japan, to Latin American cleaners protesting unfair dismissal in the UK, to migrant painters and landscapers in New Zealand camping outside offices to demand unpaid wages. At times, protests continued for several days and workers went without basic amenities, in powerful and sustained efforts to hold companies to account.
Protests occurred across 17 countries, mainly in Europe (19 cases in France, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Türkiye and the UK), but also in the Asia-Pacific (11 cases), Middle East and North Africa (three cases) and Americas (two cases) regions. Workers demanded better treatment and compensation despite destination countries severely limiting the right to peaceful assembly and having a record of brutal suppression, including garment workers in China and construction workers in Saudi Arabia.
Most protests happened in construction (12 cases), cleaning and maintenance (eight cases), manufacturing (eight cases, of which five were in apparel), and platform delivery (five cases). Several factors led to protest action for these workers, including the most severe abuse, a lack of access to remedy, and the organising power of both mainstream and grassroots union movements within these sectors and their geographies.
Workers often protested only after abuses became extremely severe, including experiencing wage theft for months and working 12-hour days and seven day weeks. In Indonesia, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Thailand, workers protested after their colleagues died amid safety failures and the denial of medical treatment.
Protests are symbols of solidarity and resistance: they convey the enduring power of organising to end abuse and create change. However, protests are also symptomatic of corporate failure to provide timely remediation. Companies often only remediated workers after protests brought bad publicity, while workers often protested because companies left them with no other way of making themselves heard. Extensive outsourcing exacerbated this issue, leaving workers unsure with whom to raise grievances and enabling companies to evade responsibility.
❗ Allegation spotlight – Workers from Myanmar protest at Rojana Industrial Estate, Thailand
In September, 700 migrants from Myanmar protested after experiencing months of wage theft in Thailand. The workers were employed by subcontractors to build an electronics manufacturing plant at Rojana Industrial Estate. Investment for the project came from Thai company iFound PCP (owned by Founder PCB), reportedly funded by the Chinese government. Despite legal and practical barriers to organising, migrants continued to successfully protest, forcing companies to change their practices and remedy abuse. Workers blocked access to the factory, stopping delivery trucks from entering or leaving. The company said it would pay missing wages the week after the protest.
Civic freedoms and the right to protest were under attack in 2024, not only in autocratic regimes but also in established democracies such as the UK. Intersecting forms of discrimination made it difficult for migrants to protest, including the risk of dismissal leading to deportation, as happened to 200 garment workers from Myanmar in China. In six cases, workers were met with intimidation and violence: protesting migrants were “pushed, pulled and dragged” by security guards and threatened with arrest. Media freedom restrictions and subsequent underreporting in several regions suggest that these figures are just the tip of the iceberg.
“I was shaking like a leaf…but I also felt so strong, and so seen” – Ecuadorian cleaner protesting arbitrary dismissal in the UK with the support of United Voices of the World
In many cases, striking migrants were supported by local and national unions, who provided additional bargaining power. However, we also tracked 13 instances in which rights to freedom of association or assembly were violated, including in India, South Africa, the UK and the USA. This is likely a significant undercount, as migrants are excluded from unionisation rights entirely in many countries. Migrants who did join unions faced retaliation, employers avoided negotiations through intimidatory tactics, and companies held captive audience meetings to dissuade migrants from unionising.
Protests clearly demonstrate an urgent need for companies to implement effective grievance mechanisms and provide timely remediation following abuse. Companies must also proactively recognise and respect rights to freedom of association and assembly. Companies should ensure migrants can join equivalent worker bodies in regions, such as the Gulf states, where there are significant legal barriers to migrant unionisation.
Gig work
Gig work
“We left Brazil in search of something better. But most of us can’t make those dreams come true. We come back in a worse state than when we left.” – Brazilian Uber Eats food delivery worker, UK
The number of gig workers is increasing globally. Companies deploying gig workers were repeatedly associated with allegations of abuse in 2024, with Uber linked to the third highest number of allegations in the entire dataset. Characterised by exceptionally short-term and paid-by-task jobs and the classification of workers as independent contractors, despite limited opportunity to determine their scope of work, the gig business model results in acute job precarity.
In 2024, we tracked 16 cases impacting migrants undertaking gig work, predominantly affecting food delivery workers from South America (12 cases) in the USA and Europe. Low wages (seven cases) left workers unable to afford basic living expenses: Brazilian workers in the UK lived in dilapidated caravans as payments from Deliveroo and Uber Eats allegedly failed to keep pace with soaring rents; Venezuelan and Nicaraguan migrants in the US allege that they worked up to 70 hour weeks for Lyft and Uber as they struggled to earn enough; and payments allegedly fell to as little as EUR1 per order for South American migrants in Ireland working for Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats (Deliveroo, Just Eat, Lyft, and Uber Eats responded to journalists). By defining workers as independent contractors, companies avoided paying living wages or providing employee labour protections. Poverty wages contrasted with huge profits reaped by digital platform companies: Uber, for example, earned USD796 million during the second quarter of 2024 alone.
Migrant platform workers also experienced occupational health and safety violations. Zimbabwean food delivery riders in South Africa delivered to dangerous locations in Johannesburg for USD1 per delivery and road accidents caused life-changing injuries. Independent contractors were unable to join national unions, reducing their bargaining power. Workers also reported limited access to information (three cases), including the use of “black box" algorithms to make management decisions. These abuses harmed workers’ mental health, leading to stress and depression.
“I was depressed for a year. It was horrible…I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. If you work, work, work and have no life… that’s where depression comes from.” – Brazilian Uber Eats worker, UK
Some legislative developments in 2024 were notable for enhancing protections for gig workers. In several jurisdictions, lawmakers ruled that workers should be reclassified as employees, including Bolt workers in the UK, Tada workers in South Korea, and Uber Eats workers in Belgium. After turbulent negotiations, the EU’s Platform Worker Directive entered into force in December 2024: member states have two years to incorporate the directive’s provisions into national legislation. The Directive enshrines a legal presumption of employment for platform workers and ensures that algorithms are monitored by staff and workers can contest automated decisions.
However, some courts, such as in California, ruled that companies could continue classifying workers as independent contractors. Further, civil society raised concerns regarding companies’ ability to maintain harmful business models despite new legislation. For example, following the creation of a gig sector wage floor in some American states, digital platform companies limited workers’ hours in New York and ceased operations in Minneapolis. Some companies simply failed to comply with new legislation. For example, Glovo was fined USD215 million for breaking Spain’s 2021 “Rider Law”; it has since made its freelance delivery riders employees, following government pressure.
While all 2024 cases related to delivery workers, the increasing “gigification” of other sectors, including nursing, cleaning and retail, is concerning. Companies operating through gig models must support and comply with stronger legislation. At a minimum, they must ensure living wages, protection from occupational harms, and an end to algorithmic decision making without human oversight.
“We were working in an environment that left so much to be desired. We were working in a place that had no regulated safety at all. There was no order there, and you could see that nobody cared about our safety. No safety inspectors were on site, and some people were just walking around without wearing personal protective equipment. Ask the developers to show you the list of the people who worked there, you will never get it. It was pure exploitation of labour.” – Mozambican worker on conditions at a South Africa construction site where a collapse killed over 50 people.
"Migrant workers are the so-called invisible workers propping up all sectors of the economy, public and private. We have seen time and time again that migrant workers, despite facing language barriers, precarious contracts and systemic discrimination, are ready to take collective action when they have the support they need... For UVW, ‘We are no longer invisible’ is more than just our slogan. It’s a statement of power. When workers come together, they not only fight for their own dignity but inspire others to do the same. Visibility is resistance, a resistance that exposes the failures of corporations and governments that exploit outsourcing to create a two-tier system where black, brown and migrant workers are treated as second-class citizens." - Isabel Cortés, UVW Assistant General Secretary
Agri-food supply chains
Agri-food supply chains account for 32% (210) of cases of migrant worker abuse recorded globally. The majority (162 cases) impacted workers in agriculture and fishing, 40 cases impacted processing and packaging workers, and 16 cases impacted workers at distribution and retail – on the shop floor.
Industry risks
Industry risks
Food and beverage produced under exploitative conditions were sold on the shelves of multinational supermarkets and found in the products of household brands headquartered in the EU, UK and United States. Some supermarkets and brands were named explicitly, including Asda, Carrefour, Coca-Cola, the Co-operative, HelloFresh, Lidl, Marks and Spencer’s, PepsiCo, Safeway (part of Albertsons), Sainsbury’s, SPAR (through its subsidiary ASPIAG), Tesco and Waitrose.
The commercial behaviour of companies at the top of supply chains created specific risks:
A concentrated buyers’ market increased the power asymmetry between suppliers and buyers, enabling large retailers to dictate unreasonable purchasing practices, including by driving down prices. The risks of such practices were borne by farmworkers and fishers who suffered worsened pay and conditions. Huge profits reaped by supermarkets in 2024 contrasted sharply with the poverty wages experienced by migrant workers (20 cases of poverty wages and payment below the minimum wage were tracked), showing how large retailers do have the leverage to effect change.
A lack of supply chain transparency meant that only seven per cent of cases (14) were linked to named buyers. Civil society organisations highlighted the inimical impact of low transparency in seafood supply chains, where companies rarely publish vessel lists, reducing accountability. Companies continued to profit from complex supply chains over which they held little apparent oversight, with a reliance on inadequate certification schemes and audits that failed to detect abuse.
Indirect hiring inhibited accountability as labour suppliers could abuse migrants with little or no oversight from farms or wineries. For example, Indonesian workers were threatened in Taiwan after asking for transfers, a Filipino migrant’s broker demanded commission to extend her contract, and undocumented workers from Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal were told they would be paid only at the end of the Champagne harvest in France. Processing and packaging companies also relied on labour suppliers, including for the provision of night-time cleaners, which shielded them from accountability.
Allegation spotlight
Allegation spotlight
❗Allegation spotlight: Undocumented workers in the USA's domestic agri-food supply chains
“We have a life here. We have kids here. And we’ve given so much to the places we’ve worked…people don’t realize how much they rely on farmworkers.” – Undocumented female migrant in California
Following the 2024 United States election, the new administration’s promise of “mass deportations” took effect immediately after the January 2025 presidential inauguration. Criticised as fiscally damaging (costing up to USD 967.9 billion and curbing GDP growth) and a threat to food security and prices, the executive orders will undoubtedly have wide-ranging and devastating consequences for the estimated 11 million undocumented workers across the country.
Almost half of farmworkers in the United States are undocumented. In 2024, we tracked 32 cases of abuse against undocumented migrants in agri-food supply chains, likely a significant undercount given workers rarely complained, fearing arrest. Undocumented workers disproportionately reported intimidation compared to the dataset average (half of cases, compared to one in five across the whole dataset), alongside disproportionate levels of unsuitable living conditions and unreasonable working hours (17 cases each).
In a particularly harrowing case, an undocumented worker was contracted by Esparza Enterprises to work at Grimmway Farms, one of the largest carrot producers in the world. She saw her colleague hit and killed by a field truck but was told to pick carrots next to her body. She was afraid to speak up about the incident, as supervisors threatened to report complainers to immigration authorities. In another case, an undocumented Mexican worker on a dairy farm suffered physical and verbal abuse, including deportation threats if he refused to work 15-hour shifts, seven days a week. Following a permanently disabling injury, the worker pursued compensation; his employer retaliated by throwing him and his family out of their home on the farm.
Amid vitriolic, anti-migrant policies from the new administration, abuse will become increasingly acute. Workers already say they fear going to work, and employers may increasingly use the threat of Immigration Customs Enforcement to silence reports of abuse. Workers also fear leaving farms due to the risk of arrest, exacerbating workers’ isolation and increasing their dependence on unscrupulous employers.
Recommendations
Recommendations
Recommendations for agri-food companies
The Resource Centre’s core recommendations to companies across all sectors to assess, mitigate and remedy abuse for migrant workers can be read in full below. Many of the findings relating to abuse of agri-food supply chain workers in 2024 may be directly addressed through these recommendations, but the tracked cases also specifically highlight risks linked to temporary migration schemes, value chain transparency, purchasing practices and the use of labour suppliers.
In particular, companies must publicly support calls for governments to: a) reform temporary labour migration programmes supplying agri-food workers; b) create temporary visas allowing migrant workers to remain in-country and take legal action over exploitation; and, c) halt plans for mass deportations.
Multinational retailers and supermarkets at the top of supply chains must also improve value chain transparency, including by disclosing suppliers and information on human rights due diligence undertaken when contracting suppliers. Further, measures undertaken to address adverse human rights impacts should go beyond audits, a reliance on certification schemes or participation in MSIs; they should include worker-driven social responsibility models, meaningful stakeholder engagement, and the development of adequate grievance mechanisms. Companies must also invest time and resources into reviewing and improving purchasing practices in line with international standards, particularly regarding downward pressures on prices where risks are passed onto workers. Finally, employers can and should directly hire migrants: even in jurisdictions where labour suppliers are regulated, direct oversight mechanisms should still be implemented.
“I came to the U.S. because my mother was sick, and her roof caved in. I needed work and I stayed quiet about the abuse for four years. The stress was awful. But I want other workers to know that they have rights, that there are laws that protect us.” – A Mexican plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against Casertano Greenhouses over allegations of abuse brought by H2-A visa holders
Labour shortages in more economically developed countries’ agri-food supply chains are critical, where poor working conditions create negative public perception of sector jobs. Employers increasingly rely on temporary migrants to harvest fields, fish on trawlers, pack in factories and distribute to supermarket shelves.
However, throughout 2024 these essential workers also experienced severe and widespread human rights violations. Exploitation across agri-food supply chains accounted for the highest number of tracked cases (210 cases, 32% of the dataset), with 162 cases in agriculture and fishing, 40 cases in food processing and packaging, and 16 cases in food distribution and retail. High-risk regional migration corridors included Mexico and Central America to the USA and Canada; Central Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia to Europe (particularly to Italy and the UK); and Southeast Asia to East Asia (particularly to South Korea and Taiwan).
"The report shows the agricultural and fishing sectors are particularly high risk, and recommends that alternative initiatives such as Worker-Driven Social Responsibility (WSR) programmes be explored. We urge UK supermarkets to recognise the WSR projects that are emerging in European seafood and agriculture sectors and to commit to collaborating and fully engaging with these. We recognise that it takes time to develop bespoke, worker-led models and that this may be less straightforward and present more challenges compared to continuing with existing certification schemes, audits and multi-stakeholder initiatives. But these have been demonstrated time and again not to work – new ways to improve conditions must be invested in." - Jasmine Owens, writer/researcher at Ethical Consumer Research Association
The USA (57 cases), UK (23 cases) and Canada (16 cases) were the most common destination countries. The majority of these cases (where workers’ migration status was known) impacted workers on temporary labour migration programmes, including the United States’s H-2A programme, Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, and the UK’s Seasonal Worker Visa Scheme. These schemes increased migrants’ vulnerability by compounding the power imbalance between migrants and employers using employer or sponsor-tied visas. Undocumented workers were also at high risk of abuse; however, due to deportation fears suppressing complaints, such cases were underreported.
“I needed my contract to be renewed, otherwise I would have become an illegal migrant in Italy, thus I accepted every condition they imposed on me” Indian food warehousing worker in Italy
Workers across both agriculture and fishing, and processing and packaging, most frequently reported occupational health and safety violations. Farmworkers reported health and safety violations in 63 cases, followed by wage theft in 60 and precarious living conditions in 47. In 11 cases, the use of dangerous machinery led to injuries or death; in ten cases, farmworkers became ill due to the use of harmful pesticides; in 13 cases, workers were exposed to extreme heat. In one particularly shocking case, an Indian farmworker died in Italy after his employer left him on the road with a severed arm, sparking UN calls for reforms.
“Although I was clearly in need of medical help, my captain forced me to continue working for another month on the high seas. I was allowed to rest for only a few days and then I treated my injury using antibiotics and paracetamol that I brought with me to relieve the pain” – Indonesian fisher describing conditions on a Taiwanese deep-sea fishing vessel
Migrant fishers also experienced unsafe conditions, leading to limb-loss from frostbite, blindness from snapped fishing lines, sinkings, and deaths. Fishers commonly reported wage theft (14 cases), retention of identity documents and intimidation (13 cases each). For example, Indonesian fishers worked under menace of penalty in conditions akin to forced labour, while Filipino workers received less than half wages promised while catching tuna in the North Pacific.
Migrants in processing and packaging most commonly experienced health and safety violations (17 cases), including injuries on processing lines and chemical exposure, followed by wage theft (13 cases). Intimidation was also rampant (12 cases): workers reported “fear and violence”, verbal abuse, and threats of dismissal and deportation. Workers in warehousing, distribution and on the shop floor (16 cases) reported unreasonable working hours, including 13-hour days, and precarious living conditions (14 cases each).
Construction and engineering
Construction accounts for 20% (130) of cases of migrant worker abuse recorded globally.
Industry risks
Industry risks
Industry risks: Construction and engineering
Similarly to seasonal work, demand for construction labour fluctuates. The industry is characterised by short project timelines, fragmented value chains and downwards procurement pressures through multiple layers of subcontracting – all of which exacerbate risk of labour rights harm.
In 2024, construction workers were disproportionately more likely to suffer health and safety violations at work than across other sectors. Health and safety breaches were most frequently reported by migrant construction workers in 43% of cases, with standards often pressured by project timelines and budget constraints. Breaches were reported on worksites as diverse as renewable energy projects in Australia, a factory for electric vehicle producer BYD, and a Malaysian resort where injuries led to two deaths. Workers reported not being provided with suitable personal protective equipment, unsafe worksites contravening building regulations, accidents involving heavy machinery, excessive working hours and too little rest, violence and heat exposure at work. Construction also accounted for one third (29) of cases involving fatalities. In June, a fire at accommodation in Kuwait housing 196 construction workers killed at least 45 Indian workers and three Filipino workers, injuring more than 50 more people. The building owner was also the workers’ employer. Investigations pointed overcrowding and a lack of proper fire safety measures as contributors to the mass casualty.
“We don’t get enough rest. This lack of sleep has caused many accidents. There have been many. Just last month, there were four or five cases.” – Migrant construction worker at NEOM, Saudi Arabia
Pressure on hiring and salary costs, and pay-when-paid policies also persistently threaten construction wages and shoulder workers with recruitment costs by incentivising a race to the bottom. Wage theft, the second highest reported issue, was reported in 39% of construction cases, followed by recruitment fee-charging in 25% of cases, leading to debt and devastating financial pressures. Company owners in at least six cases were facing liquidation or bankruptcy while workers’ wages remained unpaid. In a case emblematic of the challenges facing migrant construction workers in the Gulf, Filipino migrants continued to fight for their owed dues in Saudi Arabia after the liquidation of Saudi Oger and Saudi BinLadin construction companies. Building and Woodworkers International filed a Forced Labour complaint with the ILO against Saudi Arabia in June; backed by unions across regions and a dossier of evidence.
“I always get tense about my wages because I have lost my sweat and blood to earn every penny. Now I am affected with high blood pressure … I am living a very hard life. I had to take bank loans to run my family and for our [medical] treatment. If I get that money, I can repay the loans. Otherwise, I will be destroyed.” – Migrant construction worker in Saudi Arabia, interviewed by Human Rights Watch
Allegation spotlight
Allegation spotlight
❗️Allegation spotlight: Risks of mega-events and giga-projects
Several cases were linked to construction infrastructure for mega-events and mega-projects on strict timelines. In France, ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics NGOs highlighted discriminatory treatment of migrants across the capital, pointing to a campaign of “social cleansing” by which homeless migrants were removed from an area around the Olympics venues. By contrast, reports found evidence of undocumented and exploitative migrant labour forming the cornerstone of Olympics projects themselves. Informal subcontracting networks, employing migrants without work permits, fraudulent or shell companies and worker arrangements without formal contracts were widespread. Five cases were linked to the 2024 Paris Olympics, impacting undocumented workers from West Africa, Mali, Sudan and Tunisia. The presence of the Olympics also served to highlight conditions for migrant construction workers across France, particularly so after a Malian worker employed by LaSade died amid union allegations of unsafe working conditions at Bassin d’Austerlitz, a major project in Paris; Sade did not respond to request for comment. Undocumented workers on the Metro and the Pleyel Tower also reported abuse.
"Since my current employer doesn't give me a pay slip, I've had to work something out with another company. They provide me with a contract to make it seem like I'm working for them, so I can get a pay slip. But the reality is, I pay them 900 euros a month for this service because it's part of my application to regularize my situation. It's like a pay slip arrangement.” – Undocumented Tunisian worker on a 2024 Olympics construction site
In Taiwan, Vietnamese and Thai workers subcontracted to Samsung C&T to develop Taoyuan International Airport reported forced labour risks, including working under pressure of debts from fee-charging, punitive management and deceptive recruitment. Following the abuse, at least 500 workers reportedly left the site, rendering them undocumented. Samsung C&T said it was “not involved in recruitment of migrant workers”. In Saudi Arabia, the infamously opaque NEOM project, including the Line, Red Sea Project and the Tunnel, was repeatedly spotlit in 2024 as senior executives faced scrutiny over allegations of racism and misogyny, while workers described working “gruelling” 16 hour days on the Line while sleeping for only four hours, resulting in accidents. A Human Rights Watch report also described workers on NEOM projects regularly suffering wage theft on top of USD1,000 illegal recruitment fees, while a supervisor admitted that fixed project timelines and excessive targets pressure workers to work continuously and overexert themselves.
Amnesty International documented wage violations among Bolivian, Moroccan, Pakistani and Senegalese workers at Camp Nou Stadium, a host venue for the FIFA men’s World Cup 2030 in Spain. Besides being paid “well below the legal minimum” and forced to work unpaid overtime, at least one worker was sleeping in a bag outside the worksite, unable to afford adequate housing. The first case of abuse on a Saudi 2034 World Cup project also came to light as Bangladeshi construction workers at Aramco Stadium told of earning less than GBP2 an hour while toiling for ten hours per day in “ferocious” heat. As the countdown to Saudi 2034 sees construction begin in earnest, all companies contracted to World Cup projects must be cognisant of the risks to subcontracted workers and work to uphold standards and respect migrants’ rights throughout the project cycle.
Recommendations
Recommendations
Recommendations for clients and main contractors
The Resource Centre’s core recommendations to companies across all sectors to assess, mitigate and remedy abuse for migrant workers can be read in full below. Many of the findings relating to abuse of construction workers in 2024 may be directly addressed through these recommendations but the tracked cases specifically highlight risks in two areas: the importance of accurate project timeline forecasting, and the need to ringfence wages, remediation and compensation to protect workers from the fallout when companies have gone into liquidation or declared bankruptcy.
Companies must ensure undue pressures are not placed on workers to work longer hours or complete work more intensely and without protections. Clients should also commit to ringfence the costs of labour rights standards and initiatives into tendering documents to ensure that they are accounted for in bids, including proper investments in fair wages and recruitment costs. Industry should also commit to remediate unpaid wages, recruitment fee charges and compensation directly to subcontracted workers, particularly in instances in which companies have gone into liquidation or declared bankruptcy without adequate protections for wages and other owed dues.
Migrants are employed in the construction sector across developing and developed nations, with estimates ranging from 10% (of non-EU nationals) in Europe to almost 100% in the Gulf. Top receiving countries in our 2024 dataset were Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest construction markets, the USA, where an estimated 30% of construction workers are migrants, and India, where all cases impacted internal migrants, followed by New Zealand, and Singapore, where construction has particularly been spotlit for lethal violations during 2024. Where workers’ migration status was reported, undocumented workers were impacted in 38% of cases, slightly higher than the 32% across the dataset. Impacted workers were far more likely to be men, with only one in ten cases impacting women.
"It was over 40 degrees, there were 60-kilometre gust winds — and they still wanted you to put 25-kilo solar panels on…You are under so much pressure to achieve targets and get the farm built as fast as you can so the company doesn't go over its delivery date and get fined.” – Canadian backpacker installing solar panels in Australia
"Every day, on construction sites around the world, we witness migrant workers enduring extreme conditions... Whether in the Gulf, Europe, the United States, or Asia, the same patterns persist: tight project deadlines and cost-cutting measures push workers to the brink, while fragmented subcontracting chains shield those responsible. Without strong protections, accountability remains elusive, and exploitation thrives. Ending this cycle requires real enforcement of labour rights, the right to organize, and fundamental changes to business models that prioritize short-term profits over workers' lives. No worker should have to risk their life or livelihood simply to build our cities and infrastructure" - Ambet Yuson, General Secretary of the Building and Wood Workers' International
Manufacturing
Cases associated with manufacturing supply chains account for 12% (77) of cases of migrant worker abuse recorded globally.
Industry risks
Industry risks
Industry risks: Manufacturing
Health and safety breaches were most frequently reported by manufacturing workers in 38% of cases, followed by unreasonable working hours and/or inadequate rest and leisure time in 32% of cases which often manifested in excessive production targets) - deaths in 19% of cases and injuries in 12%.
While barriers for workers to access remedy were reported across supply chains, this was a top five risk reported by manufacturing workers, often preceding injuries and even fatalities. In one case, workers in India reported a health and safety issue to their factory supervisor before an explosion later killed five of them. In another, a Bangladeshi worker who was permanently blinded in an accident was threatened with deportation if he complained against his South Korean employer, while a Ukrainian worker at a Latvian diary processor was deterred from filing a complaint with the labour inspectorate after a company official accompanied her to hospital following an accident at work. Even where workers did use legal avenues for redress, employers escaped accountability. For example, a Chinese worker who moved internally for employment at a furniture factory took his employer to court for redundancy pay, but they escaped justice by leaving the country.
Allegation spotlight
Allegation spotlight
❗️ Allegation spotlight: Kawaguchi Manufacturing – supplier to Daikin, Panasonic & Sony, Malaysia
“This is the type of case that can serve as a litmus test for businesses when it comes to their understanding both of their leverage and their responsibility to respect human rights.” — UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights member Pichamon Yeophantong
On 27 December 2024, 251 Bangladeshi workers filed an OECD complaint with the Japanese National Contact Point against electronics giants Panasonic and Sony. In August, reports emerged of widespread labour abuses at Kawaguchi Manufacturing, a supplier to Japanese brands including Daikin, Panasonic and Sony. The Malaysian Labour Department confirmed the allegations, brought by independent migrant worker rights specialist Andy Hall. Migrant workers allegedly:
- Were unpaid for up to six months, with detrimental impacts both on their own well-being and on families dependent on remittances;
- Were charged high recruitment fees, and some had taken out high-interest loans to do so;
- Worked seven days per week and were granted neither public holidays nor overtime pay;
- Had passports withheld by the company which failed to renew visas;
- Were housed in dormitories in appalling conditions.
Workers raised concerns over buyer disengagement and halts to sourcing, which began immediately after the situation was publicised and the buying companies engaged by activists, would contribute to joblessness, mounting wage theft and debt, prompting accusations of “cutting and running”. Conditions worsened; workers carried out a five-day protest and survived on credit-bought food. A late December labour tribunal wage settlement negotiation between Kawaguchi company and the workers, all three buyers, and IndustriALL union, that was monitored by labour authorities, was deemed inadequate and a “formality” by Andy Hall.
In late December, workers said that they were forcibly transferred to alternative employment by local labour officials without negotiation as to their rights or information on new employment, and that their passports were taken away from them. As of January 2025, all three of Kawaguchi’s main buyers confirmed they were moving sourcing from the factory. Daikin was the last to withdraw, highlighting that it accounted for only 1-2% of Kawaguchi’s business but the impossibility of continuing sourcing with Panasonic and Sony already exiting the relationship threatened the company’s commercial viability.
In all, workers in the Kawaguchi case reported several indicators amounting to forced labour, from deception during recruitment to retention of documentation, abuse of vulnerability and intimidation in the workplace. The case has shone a light on widespread practices across Malaysia, with IndustriALL Malaysia Council calling for responses to include a “systemic approach from the government” and pointing to weaknesses in the labour law that leave migrant workers in Malaysia vulnerable to abuse and retaliation. Workers were supported to use existing justice and remedy mechanisms, yet they remain unpaid and forced to take alternative jobs owing to the existence of employer-tied visas. This underscores the inadequacy of remedy avenues that fail to take into account intersecting factors amounting to forced labour conditions.
Responses from all three companies and the Responsible Business Alliance, of which Panasonic and Sony are members, can be read on our website here in full. As of early February 2025, around 140 of the workers have not yet managed to secure new employment due to bureaucratic challenges, facing homelessness, eviction and threatened arrest and detention.
Recommendations
Recommendations
Recommendations for manufacturing employers and buyers
The Resource Centre’s core recommendations to companies across all sectors to assess, mitigate and remedy abuse for migrant workers can be read in full below. Many of the findings relating to the abuse of manufacturing workers in 2024 may be directly addressed through these recommendations but the Kawaguchi case raises two distinct areas to be addressed.
The first highlights the vital role global buyers can and should play in investigating abuse and remediating workers directly; the second speaks to the detrimental potential impacts of buyer disengagement directly on workers’ livelihoods. The fight for transparent, full and timely remediation saps workers, their representatives and activists of much-needed funds and energy – often leading to partial or delayed remedy months after initial allegations came to light. In the Kawaguchi case, the settlement would be enacted over one year after reports originally came to light and workers were dependent on food aid in the interim. Regarding responsible purchasing, buyers must recognise the leverage that comes with remaining engaged when suppliers are found to have violated migrants’ labour rights. Cutting contracts in response to allegations of human rights abuse must be a last resort and should only happen in consultation with stakeholders, including workers and their representatives, to risk assess and offset the impacts to workers’ wages, remediation and livelihoods.
The ILO finds that 26.7% of international migrants globally are employed in industry, including manufacturing. In 2024, the Resource Centre found workers, the majority from the Asia-Pacific region, impacted by abuse in manufacturing supply chains, spanning employers from small-scale plants to very large multinational buyers. Locations of abuse ranged from countries in Europe to South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the USA. Several well-known car and electronics brands were reportedly linked to abuse including:
- Samsung SDI, linked to a lithium battery factory at which health and safety violations led to a fire that killed 23 people, including 17 migrants. Samsung SDI’s response can be read here;
- Honda and Toyota linked to abusive recruitment fees and processes for Vietnamese workers in Taiwan;
- Indian migrant women who moved from Tamil Nadu for employment at Apple supplier Foxconn in Chennai, who reported being constrained to sub-standard accommodation, and safety breaches from excessive production targets.
“Sometimes the machine itself has problems and the phones don’t arrive on the conveyor belt on time. So sometimes, we are sitting there idle because something is wrong. And when it starts working, all the phones come together and we have to increase our speed.” – Female internal migrant at Foxconn, producing iPhones
“Malaysian migrant labour intensive export industries, including plastics, electronics, palm oil, furniture and garments, an essential part of many international companies and brands global supply chains and finished products, currently consist of conditions prevalent for systemic migrant forced labour. Brands, buyers, investors, law enforcement agencies around the world and consumers need to do more to prevent and remediate such prevalent modern slavery conditions in Malaysia.” - Andy Hall, independent Migrant Worker Rights Specialist
Factories and buyers identified in the tracked cases were linked to a range of everyday household items and materials, underscoring the risk that broad swathes of popular consumer purchases are tainted by exploitative labour practices. Twenty-two cases impacting migrant workers producing fashion items including bags and clothing were tracked, including in factories in Italy, where Armani and Dior faced investigations into labour abuse at suppliers, India and Thailand. Abuse of migrant workers in furniture factories was tracked in geographies as diverse as China, Italy and Saudi Arabia. Abuse of workers producing auto parts and working on automobile manufacturing lines was revealed in India, Poland, Taiwan and the USA.
Recommendations
- Top tier brands must commit to full and public supply chain transparency, including use of contractors, subcontractors, labour suppliers and recruitment agencies. This is key to allowing migrant workers and their allies to raise concerns and access remedy. It forms an integral avenue for businesses’ own due diligence to identify risk and ensure the welfare of workers linked to their operations.
- Adopt a migrant worker-centred approach, in line with international standards of equality and non-discrimination across all grounds, to identify salient risks to migrant workforces throughout supply chains:
- Acknowledge the heightened risk of abuse for subcontracted and supply chain workers, cascade binding standards throughout supply chains and work with suppliers to ensure they are upheld;
- Consult with key stakeholders including migrant worker-focused civil society organisations, diaspora groups and unions with migrant member and leadership. Seek insights into risks, drivers of abuse, and the components of an effective action plan to mitigate risks.
- Implement policies to mitigate risks specific to migrant workers:
- Commit to international standards that call for the implementation of the Employer Pays Principle, that employers and not workers must bear the costs of recruitment rather than the worker;
- Implement accessible and transparent operational level grievance mechanisms that are responsive to workers’ needs, including all supply chain - subcontracted and outsourced - workers, irrespective of nationality, and in workers’ languages;
- Expect and encourage an enabling environment for migrant workers to join and form trade unions along supply chains, through a strong commitment to the principles of freedom of association and collective bargaining in sectors and among workforces where union organising is a particular challenge.
- Respond proactively to allegations of migrant worker abuse:
- Investigate raised concerns regarding working conditions for migrants, whether from workers themselves, civil society, unions or media sources;
- Privilege workers’ own testimony over audit and paper trails by explicitly adopting a worker-centric approach to investigations, accept the truth of workers’ claims and set the burden of proof on business partners to prove abuse did not occur;
- Commit to remedy harms in consultation with impacted workers or their representatives, including (but not limited to) reimbursement for fee-charging, interest gained on loans and wage theft, compensation for harms including physical and mental health support, and ensuring access to decent, regular jobs; ensure the provision of remedy accommodates workers who have returned home.
- Recognise explicitly the harms inherent in state immigration policies and bridge the gap with international standards:
- Where recruitment fees are baked into temporary labour migration schemes, commit to cover all costs for workers’ to obtain their jobs, including government charges for visas, access to social security and welfare and all other administrative charges in line with the Employer Pays Principle;
- Within sponsorship schemes reliant on tied visas, commit to facilitate workers’ transfer to other jobs and companies as far as legally possible; where relevant provide documentation up-front to workers on their joining employment that would allow them to move jobs smoothly.
- Collaborate to use the collective leverage of brands to press governments for greater protection of migrants, and human rights due diligence as part of the need to create a more robust level playing field for responsible brands, suppliers, and recruitment agencies.
About us
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre is an international NGO which tracks the human rights impacts of over 10,000 companies in over 180 countries, making information available on our 10-language website.
Authors: Isobel Archer and Catriona Fraser
Support: Natalie Swan and Michael Clements
We are thankful for the work of partners and other NGOs, without whose efforts to document ongoing abuse of migrant workers and shed a light on the worst forms of marginalisation and exploitation this analysis would not be possible. This work was supported by Humanity United.