The UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights (UN Working Group) released its report to the UN General Assembly on labour migration, business and human rights (July 2025). Drawing on consultations with businesses, governments and other stakeholders, the report assesses the human rights challenges faced by transnational migrant workers and offers practical examples and recommendations for how governments and businesses can implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) with a migrant worker-centred lens.
Human Level’s Take:
- Migrant workers are essential to economies and societies but face pervasive human rights risks ranging from forced labour, wage theft and discrimination, to trafficking and unsafe conditions. Structural barriers like temporary migration programmes, limitations on access to social safety nets, incoherent policies between home and host countries, corruption and discrimination can make this even worse.
- The sectors at highest risk? Services, manufacturing and fast-moving consumer goods, construction, agriculture, domestic work and the care economy, maritime industries (including fishing and shipbuilding), extractive industries, hospitality and tourism, logistics and transportation, and the gig economy.
- The UN Working Group recommends that businesses protect migrant workers by aligning policies with international standards and embedding them across the full value chain through SOPs and training (including with often-overlooked service providers like recruitment agencies, cleaning, maintenance, logistics and warehousing).
- They are also encouraged to assess risks throughout the migration continuum, raise awareness among functions like human resources, procurement and legal as well as value chain actors; provide training for migrant workers; monitor recruitment practices; and use leverage with business partners to prevent or remediate negative impacts.
- Effective remediation is also key, including through accessible grievance mechanisms, engagement with trade unions and civil society, and measures to address issues like wage theft, restricted movement, poor working conditions, and repayment of recruitment fees.
- Throughout due diligence processes, engaging workers and their representatives like trade unions or workers councils is crucial, as is providing multilingual awareness and grievance mechanisms, and promoting freedom of association. Companies can also collaborate with industry peers and multi-stakeholder initiatives to strengthen protections, particularly in high-risk sectors.
Some key takeaways:
- Risks for migrant workers: Migrant workers play a vital role in sustaining economies and enriching societies by filling key labour gaps, while also contributing through remittances and cultural exchange. However, they face persistent risks of human rights abuses, including forced labour, wage theft, debt, discrimination and social exclusion. Factors like gender and gender identity, age, pregnancy, disability, sexuality and national origin can increase risks. At every stage of migration, migrants face overlapping human rights risks, including trafficking for forced labour or crime, fraudulent online job offers, and occupational health and safety hazards like exposure to heat stress. The UN Working Group identifies the sectors at highest risk: services, manufacturing and fast-moving consumer goods, construction, agriculture, domestic work and the care economy, maritime industries (including fishing and shipbuilding), extractive industries, hospitality and tourism, logistics and transportation, and the gig economy. Localised structural barriers can also heighten risks. For example, temporary labour migration programmes can make it harder for migrants to access their rights by putting them into a state of “limbo,” preventing them from permanent residency or citizenship and entitlements. Policy incoherence between origin, transit and destination countries can make this even worse. Likewise, factors like corruption, discrimination, limitations on freedom of association and collective bargaining, and barriers to accessing remedy through the courts puts migrants at increased risk of negative impacts.
- Respecting migrants’ rights in line with the UNGPs: The report identifies good practices by business in line with the expectations of the UNGPs to conduct human rights due diligence. Coherent human rights policies are needed, explicitly protecting migrant workers and their families by preventing exploitation, discrimination and unsafe conditions. These commitments should be integrated into commitments into all operations and supply chains, for example through standard operating procedures addressing human resources and procurement practices and with third-party service providers like recruiters. These expectations can be embedded across the business through capacity-building and training. In addition, companies can enhance their assessment of risks and impacts by identifying risks along the migration continuum, including origin, transit and destination. Otherwise, companies may miss impacts that migrants experience at different stages of the process. When it comes to action, a key step is building awareness among value chain actors. This can include development of guidance and other resources to explain policies on migrant worker protection, which can be distributed among relevant teams like human resources, procurement and legal, as well as to business partners like suppliers and service providers — especially recruiters, social auditing firms, security, cleaning, logistics, warehousing and transport, which tend to be overlooked. In parallel, migrant workers can better ensure their rights are respected through pre-departure orientation, print and digital resources, and other training. When companies are directly linked to a negative impact through their business partners, they are expected to use leverage before deciding to disengage. For example, they can commission independent audits, requiring corrective action plans with concrete targets and timeframes, developing capacity through training, and strengthening supplier systems to prevent recurrence. If companies disengage, they can work with governments to ensure payment of wages, alternative employment or livelihood sources, support to return home, and availability of operational grievance mechanisms. Tracking and monitoring can take place through worker voice programmed for example, one business initiative created a mechanism including worker surveys, mobile learning and a grievance procedure enabling workers to complain directly to participating businesses. Trade unions and civil society organisations can help engage migrant workers and report risks. Remediation is also a crucial component of respecting migrant workers’ rights. Grievance mechanisms should be accessible, easy to understand and use, and offered in multiple languages. Remediation can include addressing passport retention, restrictions on freedom of movement, wage theft, and poor working and living conditions; many companies are also committing to ensure repayment of recruitment fees charged to migrants.
- Actions for businesses: The UNWG makes eight core recommendations to companies. First, ensure corporate policies align with international standards by recognizing and addressing migrant workers’ rights and related risks throughout all stages of migration. Second, embed respect for migrant workers’ rights across operations and value chains by promoting industrywide standards through collaboration with business and industry groups. Third, conduct human rights due diligence to protect migrant workers by assessing impacts, auditing workplaces, monitoring recruitment, engaging stakeholders, and implementing preventive and remedial actions. Fourth, engage migrant workers, their representatives, and experts in shaping and implementing business policies and capacity-building across value chains. Fifth, create multilingual awareness programs and worker voice mechanisms through active engagement with migrant workers and their representatives, like unions and worker councils. Sixth, promote migrant workers’ freedom of association and collective bargaining by removing union barriers and fostering social dialogue at all levels. Seventh, provide confidential, accessible grievance mechanisms for migrant workers without fear of retaliation, supported by transparent corrective action plans. Eighth, collaborate with peers to exercise increased leverage, especially in sectors that pose high risks to migrant workers, including through active participation in multi-stakeholder initiatives focused on migrant worker protection.
