The Business and Human Rights Centre (BHRC) compiled the 2026 version of its analysis on migrant workers’ rights. The analysis is based on 747 cases of alleged abuse of migrant workers globally in 2025, captured in BHRC’s Migrant Worker Allegations Database.
Human Level’s Take:
- Migrant workers are more at risk then ever, amid trends like conflict and climate change, increasingly complex supply chains, and repressive immigration policies. In 2025, the Business and Human Rights Centre (BHRC) recorded almost 750 cases of migrant abuse, mostly occurring in Global North countries or in the value chains of companies headquartered in the Global North. Yet migrants from the Global South made up 95% of the complainants, pointing to increased vulnerability of these workers.
- Other key findings: the top sectors where impacts were reported include agri-food supply chains, construction, manufacturing, and hotels, restaurants and leisure. Risks were highest in sectors where there is a lot of subcontracting, poor purchasing practices and limited buyer visibility into the supply chain. The top types of risks reported were violation of employment standards and health and safety risks.
- The analysis also shows that more and more workers are experiencing multiple types of abuse, and barriers to remedy are increasing.
- In addition, factors like conflict and climate change, which can change migration patterns and pose increased risks at workers’ destination, amplify existing risks to migrant workers. Jobs in new sectors like tech and the energy transition also come with new, emerging risks to migrant workers.
- What can companies do? BHRC outlines a number of recommendations, including committing to supply chain transparency; implementing migrant worker-specific policies and integrating migrant worker considerations into human rights due diligence; proactively addressing abuses and committing to remedy; and accounting for the ways in which climate change and conflict can heighten other human rights risks. In parallel, they can join with other companies to advocate for fair immigration policies and migrant worker protections to improve the operating context.
Some key takeaways:
- Top trends: Most cases occurred in the Global North (70%) or in the value chains of companies headquartered in the Global North (80% where headquarters were reported), yet most of the workers impacted were from the Global South (95% where country of origin was reported). Some of the top migration corridors where allegations were reported include Mexico to the US, Nepal to Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia, the Philippines to Taiwan, and Myanmar to Thailand. In addition, 584 companies were linked to cases, with US-headquartered companies making up 267 of these cases — nearly four times as often as the next most common company headquarters, the UK. The sectors with the highest number of cases were agri-food supply chains, construction, manufacturing, and hotels, restaurants and leisure. Risks were heightened where there was excessive subcontracting, poor purchasing practices, and limited value chain oversight. The most common impacts reported were violations of employment standards and occupational health and safety violations, which includes at least 98 deaths. In 47% of cases, workers experienced three or more types of human rights impacts concurrently. The report also showed that, relative to previous years’ analyses, workers experiencing more frequent abuse also reported barriers to accessing remedy, which could indicate declining corporate accountability and increasing retaliation.
- Amplifiers of risk: Global factors like conflict, climate change, hostile migration policies, increased tech and the energy transition increased both the severity and complexity of abuses. For example, conflicts in Russia and Ukraine, Palestine, Yemen and Myanmar caused migration paths to switch and more workers were caught in conflict areas, including where work sites overlapped with conflict zones. Climate change spurred more risks to life, health and safety as a result of extreme weather, high heat and wildfires. In addition, in countries where migration has been severely curtailed, such as in the US, workers experienced more isolation and increased risks of abuse. When it comes to tech, the increased use of AI has created new risks for migrant workers in sectors like semiconductor manufacturing, data labelling and digital labour platforms. In the energy transition sector, migrants experienced harms in electric vehicle value chains.
- Recommendations: The analysis outlines a number of recommendations for companies to address risks to migrant workers. This includes considering the risks to migrant workers as a part of other human rights efforts like supplier due diligence and stakeholder engagement. In addition, companies can commit to full, public supply chain transparency, including subcontractors, labour suppliers and recruiters, as well as to policies that mitigate specific risks to migrant workers, such as recruitment exploitation, barriers to grievance mechanisms, and barriers to freedom of association and collective bargaining. They need to proactively address allegations of abuse, privileging workers’ shared experiences and committing to remediate harm through reimbursement, compensation or support accessing decent work, including for workers who have returned home. Companies can also aim to meet international standards for human rights rather than national standards, especially in contexts where national policies enable risks or exploitation of migrant workers. Further, they can join with other companies to advocate for mandatory human rights due diligence. Finally, it will be increasingly important to account for the new, evolving and heightened risks to migrant workers as a result of conflict, climate change and emerging industries, embedding these considerations into ongoing human rights due diligence.
