The green economy is expected to surpass USD7 trillion in annual value by 2030, and migrants are central to this transition. These workers are increasingly filling labour shortages in new green jobs worldwide, from critical mineral production to recycling and recommerce.

But data from 2025 suggests these green transitions are still being at least partially built on exploitative practices – even as better practices are emerging elsewhere in the supply chain. Twenty-three cases of migrant abuse were recorded in industries at the forefront of the transition, including in transition mineral production (seven cases), EV supply chains (six), ‘sustainable’ urban development , recycling and recommerce (three each), renewable and low-carbon energy (two), ecotourism, and low-carbon cement kiln construction (one each).

Trends in abuse

Cases in the green economy were disproportionately linked to excessive production targets (19% of cases, relative to 7% in the global database) and unreasonable working hours (29% of cases, relative to 21% globally). Safety violations were also common (52% of cases, relative to 25% across the database). This suggests speed may be prioritised over safety amid a rush to gain government green incentives and meet ambitious decarbonisation targets.

Chinese-headquartered firms were linked to over a third (36%) of cases where companies were named, including in transition mineral production in Indonesia (where China controls 75% of nickel refining capacity), the construction of a low-carbon kiln in France, and a solar plant in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Given the dominance of Chinese companies in the green transition, these firms – and companies with business connections to them - must do more to ensure protection for their migrant workforces.

Key green industries linked to abuse

Transition mineral mining

Migrant workers, mostly from China, were subjected to violations producing nickel (five cases), alumina and cobalt (one each) – critical components of EV batteries and other green technologies. Five of these cases took place in industrial parks in Indonesia, including Jinjiang Alumina Integrated Industrial Park, Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park, and Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park.

Indonesia has the world’s largest nickel reserves and is expanding its output to meet growing demand. It has granted industrial parks accelerated regulatory approval, tax incentives, and protection from the police and military. Cases in these parks were particularly severe amid alleged poor labour rights enforcement and the prioritisation of economic growth over safety. In one case, hundreds of Chinese workers reportedly laboured for six months without rest days and were barred from leaving the park without permission.

Alongside migrant rights violations, these parks have also been linked to pollution and violations of Indigenous Peoples’ land rights, highlighting shared risks for both migrant and local communities. Yet companies in the parks have been accused of utilising ethnic frictions that divide locals and migrants, preventing solidarity and collective protest.

Electric vehicle manufacturing

Migrant workers at EV manufacturing sites were subjected to abuse (four cases, all in the USA), including at a in Hyundai plant in Alabama, a Tesla plant in Texas, and a Hyundai-LG Solutions plant in Georgia. Occupational health and safety violations were reported across these cases, including workers being crushed by falling loads, dying after falling due to a severed safety line, and fainting from heatstroke.

Beyond manufacturing, workers also reported abuse producing chips for Tesla in Taiwan. Tesla was also accused of directly hiring migrant workers for lower pay than domestic workers to perform the same job.

Renewable and low-carbon energy production

Fourteen cases were reported in the energy sector, including two cases linked to renewable or low-carbon energy, and five cases linked to the construction of transmission cables.

Renewable and low-carbon projects risk replicating exploitative labour practices in the fossil fuel industry, rather than ending abuse by providing decent, green jobs. This echoes findings from BHRC’s 2025 report on renewable projects in Saudi Arabia, which found severe rights violations impacting migrants across six solar and green hydrogen projects in the supply chains of major multinationals.

“I was dealing with inappropriate content day in and day out, eight hours a day. I lost around 15 kilos in six to eight months…I felt more depressed, and sometimes I would catch myself drifting off …thinking of videos I had seen.” – Migrant content moderator for Facebook and Instagram in Colombia, as reported by Equidem

Throughout 2025, technological frontiers underwent rapid innovation, from striking advancements in AI to the rise of robotics and automation. Tech firms reaped huge profits in this fast-moving landscape: in 2025, the top ten founders and bosses of the world’s largest technology companies saw their net worth increase to USD2.5trillion.

Yet beneath the futuristic veneer of technological progress lies a concerning trend of migrant abuse. In 2025, 64 cases were linked to technology companies specialising in hardware and equipment, software and services, social media and semiconductors.

Electronics manufacturing

Sixteen cases were recorded in electronics manufacturing, most commonly advanced semiconductors and AI servers (five cases) and consumer electronics and home appliances (four). Workers frequently reported intimidation (seven cases) and recruitment fee-charging (six), including payments of up to USD6,600 for jobs.

Almost all electronics cases were in Taiwan (13 cases), a leading electronics exporter and the world’s dominant source of advanced semiconductors. Filipinos manufacturing chips and servers used to power AI and electric vehicles, including for Apple, Tesla and Nvidia, were most often impacted (five cases), including being subjected to 12-hour shifts, bullying, and dismissal for raising complaints.

In light of clear evidence of abuse, companies should do more to address these harms. The 2025 KnowTheChain ICT Benchmark, which assessed how ICT companies address forced labour risks, found a gap between policy and practice left workers dangerously exposed. In particular, while almost all (96%) benchmarked companies prohibited recruitment fee charging in their supply chains, only 13% disclosed steps taken to implement the policy.

Digital labour platforms

“We are vulnerable to being attacked ...We are invisible and exposed at the same time.” – Pakistani delivery rider in the UK, as reported in The Guardian

Digital labour platforms have grown significantly in recent years and are spreading into new sectors. These platforms often rely on a workforce of independent contractors excluded from basic labour protections. Developments in AI have also enabled platforms to use algorithms to set wages, allocate jobs and deactivate workers, creating an information asymmetry between workers and platforms and worsening conditions.

In 2025, 12 cases impacted migrants working for digital platforms, most commonly food delivery platforms (9) such as Uber Eats and Wolt (two cases each). All cases took place in the Global North (over 75% in Europe) yet impacted Global South workers, highlighting how abuse in the gig economy risks exacerbating global inequality by pushing (often racialised) workers from marginalised countries into precarious employment, while the wealthiest nations siphon profits.

Occupational health and safety violations, wage theft (four cases each) and poverty wages (three) were most frequently reported, ranging from wages as low as EUR7 an hour for an Indian Uber Eats worker in Berlin, to a migrant worker in the UK who worked 12-hour days yet was unable to earn enough to support his family. This impoverishment contrasted with the huge profits made by digital platform companies: in April, for example, Uber’s market capitalisation was USD169.41 billion.

Social media companies 

In 19 cases, social media platforms were used to recruit workers into exploitative jobs, functioning as proxy recruitment sites and thus enabling abuse. For example, in one egregious case, workers were recruited via social media to manufacture drones in Russia under false promises about the nature of their work. Upon arrival, the workers were allegedly subjected to racism, harassment and conditions of human trafficking.

In two cases, workers were recruited via social media into online scam operations run by transnational criminal organisations, where workers were beaten and prevented from leaving. Social media firms must be alert to this risk as scam centres spill into new jurisdictions, increasing demand for multi-lingual workforces.

All cases where origin was reported impacted workers from the Global South, and some cases specifically targeted women. Social media firms may become complicit if platform algorithms push exploitative recruitment content towards at-risk and racialised demographics.

Social media – alongside AI –- companies were also linked to the abuse of subcontracted migrant content moderators and data labellers (eight cases), who review user-generated content to ensure it complies with platforms’ guidelines and annotate raw data to train AI. While documented in previous years, 2025 saw the expansion of these abuses into new jurisdictions amid surging demand for local language moderation.

These workers experienced psychological distress (five cases) due to ‘constant exposure’ to traumatic content without the required health protections. This included videos of people being tortured to death and child sexual exploitation. Workers also commonly reported intimidation (six) and excessive production targets (five).

Throughout 2025, gender and racial injustices shaped abuse across supply chains, rooted in broader racist and patriarchal power structures, reproducing social hierarchies and deepening inequality.

Racial, ethnic, caste and origin discrimination 

“Racism is there in many forms. It’s a way of speaking, of insulting - especially from bosses toward foreigners” – Migrant worker from Cape Verde working in France, as reported by Amnesty International (translated from French)

While most abuse was in the Global North, 95% of cases where workers’ origin was known impacted Global South workers (as per the FCSSC’s definition, including Mexico, Tuvalu and Türkiye).

Fifty-three cases of racial, ethnic, caste or origin discrimination were reported, impacting Global South workers in all cases where origin was known. Discrimination spanned unequal wages (11 cases) and work conditions (14), verbal abuse (20) and violence (three), including one case where workers were forbidden to speak their own language and another where a Nigerian healthcare worker in London requested a washing machine repair, only for her employer to question whether such appliances were used in her country.

Global South workers were also more frequently impacted by recruitment fee charging (21% of cases) than workers from the Global North (7%), which left them in debt in at least 18 cases. Endemic fee-charging targeting Global South workers curtails the potential for migration to alleviate poverty by reducing remittances. Global South workers were also more likely to be subjected to restricted freedom of movement, including due to the use of tied-visa schemes targeting global south workers which restricts their ability to change jobs, and the retention of identity documents (21% of cases relative to 11% for Global North workers).

While cases impacting Indigenous workers were likely underreported – including due to fear of reprisals, structural biases and a lack of representation in newsrooms - Indigenous workers were subjected to severe violations in three cases. In one case, Guatemalan Mayan Q’eqchí farmworkers in Mexico were unable to communicate with supervisors who only spoke Spanish. One worker did not know why his pay was withheld or even where he was.

Gender discrimination and intersecting risks

“I left the farm I was working for after a supervisor grabbed me. He had used sexist and abusive language towards me before, but I was afraid to lose my job if I said something. After he grabbed me, I knew I had to leave.” – Guatemalan farmworker in Canada, as reported by UFCW

Women and gender-diverse migrants experienced specific harms, as migration compounded vulnerabilities linked to gender-based discrimination, along with racism, religious marginalisation and other inequalities. These intersecting injustices created layered forms of abuse.

Women were impacted in 150 cases. Most (95% where origin country was known) impacted women from the Global South, most commonly working in the Global North.

Women most frequently experienced abuse in agriculture (30 cases), cleaning and maintenance (26), hotels, restaurants and leisure (23) and health and social care (20), with cleaning and healthcare accounting for a disproportionately high number of women workers relative to men.

This highlights how women are often pressed into traditional gender roles, such as cleaning and care, entrenching gender inequalities. In two cases, women worked in these roles despite being promised different jobs: a Pacific Island worker in Australia was required to cook and clean rather than undertake technical skilled work, and a Mexican worker in the USA was recruited as a farmworker but instead tasked with cooking.

Women were subjected to reproductive rights violations, including pregnancy discrimination (eight cases). They had to work through menstrual pain and perform heavy labour during pregnancy (three), and were penalised after becoming pregnant by being assigned heavier tasks or dismissed. In one severe case, multinational food processing firm BRF allegedly denied an eight-months pregnant Venezuelan worker permission to leave the worksite when she went into labour. The worker gave birth to her twins near a bus stop outside the meatpacking plant in Brazil, and both babies died.

Women workers also reported sexual harassment (13 cases) and rape and sexual abuse (five), with some coerced through threats of deportation. In four cases when rejecting or reporting these abuses, they faced retaliation, including a defamation lawsuit, compounding the traumatic experience.

Gender diverse migrants also experienced exploitation for not conforming to traditional gender norms. In Mexico, an Indigenous transgender migrant worker from Guatemala reported that being a trans woman “makes everything more difficult”, enduring targeted abuse because of her gender identity.