Warehousing is vulnerable to forced labour and human trafficking, particularly where migrant workers are recruited through labour agencies or cross-border recruitment systems.
Risks arise through agency work, temporary contracts and outsourced operations – especially where workers are recruited through labour brokers, housed by their employer or dependent on continued employment to maintain immigration or legal status. Workers also incur recruitment fees, debt, or travel costs that bind them to exploitative employment relationships.
Indicators of forced labour in warehousing include confiscation of identity documents, restricted freedom of movement, withheld wages and threats of deportation. Excessive overtime, threats of dismissal and barriers to worker representation increase vulnerability further and limit access to protection and remedy. Migrant workers are particularly vulnerable due to language barriers, limited knowledge of labour rights and dependence on employers for housing or immigration status.
In subcontracted warehousing operations, companies have limited visibility into recruitment practices used by labour agencies. Workers are often recruited through informal networks or brokers operating outside formal regulatory frameworks – arrangements that can facilitate forced labour, human trafficking and exploitation.
Forced labour and human trafficking risks can be concealed by design, for example, by work taking place inside private facilities that regulators, trade unions and the public cannot see into, and where workers can be forced to work long hours under constant surveillance, with no meaningful access to grievance mechanisms.
For more on forced labour and human trafficking, including the full set of risk indicators for transport supply chains, see the Risks Across Transport guidance.