The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre recorded 665 cases of alleged abuse of migrant workers globally in 2024 in their Migrant Worker Allegations 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, construction and engineering, and manufacturing. A large number of companies are unidentified as under-reporting, opaque supply chains and fear of retaliation and reprisal for workers frustrated accountability efforts.
Most frequent abuses
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.
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).
Unreasonable working hours with inadequate rest was reported in 22% of cases (147).
218 deaths were recorded across 13% of cases (89) during 2024.
The ILO estimates there are over 169 million international migrant workers globally. The workers most likely to report abuse are 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 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 and US-headquartered companies were also most frequently linked to cases during 2024. 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.
The Asia-Pacific region clearly features as the largest region of worker origin, with 56% of cases impacting workers from the region. It was also again the top receiving region, accounting for 37% of cases by destination country.
Nine of the top ten destination countries – USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Australia, Italy, Canada, New Zealand and Taiwan – are classified by the World Bank as high income.
By contrast, all of the top 10 origin countries – India, Bangladesh, Philippines, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam and Guatemala – 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, except for India, China and Indonesia.
Which sectors are profiting from migrant worker abuse?
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. Agri-food supply chains account for 32% of cases of migrant worker abuse recorded globally. The majority impacted workers in agriculture and fishing.
Construction accounts for 20% of cases of migrant worker abuse recorded globally. 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 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.
Cases associated with manufacturing supply chains account for 12% of cases of migrant worker abuse recorded globally. 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, Honda and Toyota, and Apple supplier Foxconn.
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, creativity and power was 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.
Top perpetrators of abuse
During 2024, 489 named companies were linked to 665 recorded cases in the database. Abuse tracked 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.
