Agri-Food Tops Migrant Farmworker Abuse Cases Worldwide, Including UK

Migrant farmworkers faced more reported abuse in the agri‑food sector than in any other industry in 2025, with new data linking the UK, and its fresh produce industry, to multiple cases across global supply chains.

Scale Of Abuse In Agri-Food

In its latest analysis, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre recorded 237 abuse cases in agri‑food supply chains in 2025, representing 32% of all incidents in its global migrant worker database. 

The United States accounted for the highest number of cases (31). Canada registered second (20), and the UK third, with 18 abuse cases involving migrant farmworkers. 

Most incidents – 179 cases – affected workers in agriculture and fishing. Another 53 cases were reported in food processing and packing, with nine cases involving food distribution and retail.

Where Abuses Are Happening

Migrant labour continued to play an essential role in planting, picking and packing food worldwide in 2025, underpinning food security, filling labour gaps, and helping retailers to keep shelves stocked. 

Yet many of these workers were found to be operating in what the research describes as “unacceptable working conditions”. 

Fruit and vegetable harvesting featured prominently, linked to 29 cases, while 13 cases related to livestock farming. 

Some incidents were connected to supply chains serving multinational retailers such as Costco, Walmart, and Hannaford, as well as large-scale restaurant brands including McDonald’s.

Types Of Exploitation Reported

Wage theft emerged as the most frequently reported abuse, registering in 57 cases. 

Examples included salary deductions tied to debt repayments, contracts that understated actual working hours, and pay rates below the legal minimum. 

Health and safety failures were documented in 46 cases, with workers exposed to extreme heat and hazardous chemicals. 

Poor and overcrowded accommodation was another primary concern, reported in 42 cases. Farmworkers were largely affected, making up 28% of these reports versus 15% across the broader database.

Structural Drivers And Rising Risks

Catriona Fraser, migrant workers researcher at the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, said the findings highlight escalating risks for migrant workers amid conflict, climate breakdown, and growing political hostility towards migrants. 

“Across sectors and geographies, migrant workers are being subjected to severe and systemic human rights violations, from widespread wage theft and violence, to conditions of forced labour,” Fraser explained.

According to Fraser, these abuses stem from deeper structural issues, including “extractive business models” that prioritise profit, push risks down opaque supply chains, and rely on subcontracting, weak purchasing practices, and limited oversight. 

She also pointed to global economic shifts driven by technological change and the energy transition as emerging sources of harm for migrant workforces.

Call For Stronger Corporate Action

Companies must move beyond “tick‑box” compliance, and instead adopt robust human rights due diligence that centres migrant workers’ experiences, argues Fraser. 

“The largest multinationals at the top of global value chains have the power and responsibility to drive this change and ensure just and equitable tech and energy transitions,” she emphasised. 

The data from Business & Human Rights Resource Centre’s latest analysis underscores how critical migrant workers are to global food production, while also intensifying scrutiny of labour standards in agri‑food supply chains linked to the UK and other major food‑importing countries.

Source: FarmingUK

Read the full report here