Read this before you need it
Nobody reads a page like this on the day they need it. The reason to read it now is that in almost every one of these situations the first two hours matter more than the next two weeks, and what you do in those two hours is a sequence, not a decision.
This article contains no figures and no promises. It is a sequence and a list of who to contact. Nothing here guarantees an outcome — the authorities decide those.
The two things that make everything else easier
Before anything else, know where these are and keep them separate from your passport:
- A photo or scan of your passport's details page, and of your visa or permit. Stored where you can reach it without your passport — a phone, and a copy with a family member.
- Your contract, your employer's registered name and address, and the contact details of the labour inspectorate and your embassy for the country you are in.
A worker with those two things is in a completely different situation from one without them, in every scenario below.
Lost, stolen or confiscated passport
- Report it to the local police and get the written report. That report is the document everything afterwards depends on.
- Contact your country's embassy or consulate. They issue the replacement travel document. They are the only ones who can — no agency, and no employer, can do this for you.
- If the passport is being held by an employer or an agent, that is a different situation and a serious one. Report it. Document-holding to prevent a worker leaving is treated as a serious offence in most destination countries, and there are authorities whose job it is to act on it.
- Keep the police report, the embassy reference and every receipt.
Wages not paid, or paid short
- Put it in writing to the employer first, even if you have already raised it verbally. A written record with a date changes what can be proven later.
- Keep your own record of hours worked, days worked and amounts received, as you go. This is the single most useful thing you can do before a dispute starts, because it is the part that is hardest to reconstruct afterwards.
- Keep your payslips. If you are not given payslips, ask in writing for them.
- If it continues, the labour inspectorate is the body that enforces wage rules in the country of work. Contacting them does not require the employer's permission.
- Your embassy can advise on local procedures, though they do not enforce wage claims themselves.
Injury or illness at work
- Get medical attention first. Everything else can follow.
- Report the injury to the employer the same day, in writing if you can, because time limits for reporting workplace injuries are short in many countries.
- Keep every medical document — the record of treatment, diagnoses and receipts.
- Workplace injuries are usually covered by a state insurance scheme that is separate from ordinary health insurance. Which scheme, and how to claim, is country-specific — ask the employer for the name of it in writing, and check it against the national labour authority.
- If the injury is serious, contact your embassy as well as your family.
If you are being threatened, confined, or cannot leave
- Contact your embassy or consulate. They are the body whose purpose this is.
- Contact the police.
- Tell someone outside the employer — a family member, a fellow worker you trust, an NGO that works on migrant labour rights in that country.
- Keep evidence: messages, names, dates, addresses.
- This is not a complaint about a job. If you cannot leave your accommodation or your documents are withheld, that is a situation with its own authorities and its own laws, and treating it as a workplace dispute will waste time.
Who does what — the sequence
- Immediate safety — medical, police, or getting out of the situation.
- Local police, where any document or crime is involved. Get the report number.
- Your embassy or consulate — travel documents and citizen protection.
- The labour inspectorate for wage, hours and contract violations.
- Your family, so that someone outside the country knows what is happening.
- Us — if we placed you, tell us. We can tell you which authority applies and help you find it. We cannot decide an outcome and we will not promise one.
The short version
- Keep a scan of your passport and your contract somewhere other than with your passport.
- Report to the police in writing, always. The report is the document everything else depends on.
- Your embassy is the only body that can replace a travel document.
- Record your own hours and payments from day one — the part that is hardest to reconstruct later.
- The labour inspectorate handles wages and hours; the embassy handles documents and your safety.
- If you cannot leave or your documents are held, treat it as an emergency, not a dispute.