Global Surge in Reported Migrant Worker Abuse Cases (2024–2025)

Reported migrant worker abuse cases surged globally by 37% in early 2025, reaching 445 documented incidents from January to June, up from 324 the prior year, per Business & Human Rights Resource Centre data. The biggest victims were Indian workers at 49 cases, then Philippines (38) and Bangladesh (37) with the UK (45), Saudi Arabia (41), Taiwan (38), and US (37) having the highest number of abuses. Cases of wage theft topped (145 cases), health/safety violations (107), remedy barriers (115) and involved 327 companies such as Meta and Starbucks. The most represented sectors were agri-food (118 cases) and construction (75) with 34 cases of construction fatalities being related to Saudi mega-projects such as NEOM. This year (2024) recorded 665 total cases of which 218 were deaths, and most of the deaths were as a result of unsafe conditions. This increase points to the failures of the supply chain when more people are migrating to low-wage positions.

Primary Abuse Categories

The most prevalent violation is wage theft, with 34% of cases being of the 2024 cases, and 26% recruitment fees. After that comes health violations and intimidation.​

Key Affected Regions

Asia-pacific had 37 percent of 2024 cases, and this was caused by construction and exploitation of agri-food. Mass deaths were witnessed in Saudi plans in preparation of World Cup.​

Corporate Accountability Gaps

Repeat offenses within the US/UK companies, do not fix claims which lead to induction of due diligence laws.​  https://x.com/BHRC  (Business & Human Rights Resource Centre handle on migrant abuse reports)​