At the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, tens of millions of migrant workers were forced to return home after losing their jobs, not receiving their wages for months together, overtime payments, their social security benefits, end-of-service benefits, indemnities etc.
Wage theft of migrants is a perennial phenomenon and pandemic conditions exasperated it. The wage theft booty values will come not in millions but in billions. The countries of origin don’t have the leverage or fighting ability to get these unpaid.
The wage theft reduces migrants’ income, and remittances and affects their families and COO economies greatly.