EU Member States have reformed their labour migration laws, expanded bilateral agreements, approved quotas, streamlined regularisation pathways, and enhanced oversight to balance workforce needs with the prevention of exploitation. Some EU Member States expanded, and others limited access to their labour market.

In January 2026, Spain has approved an extraordinary regularisation process for up to 500,000 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers who lived in the country before 31 December 2025 and have no criminal record. They may apply for one-year legal residence and work permits. Portugal introduced a new visa allowing high-skilled non-nationals to enter Portugal to search for a job and transition to a residence/work permit.

Conversely, others have tightened their rules, as the following examples show. Belgium’s Flanders region abolished work permits for very low-skilled jobs, removing access to work permits for positions requiring only basic education. Hungary initially liberalised its rules to address labour shortages in manufacturing and construction. It then reversed course through Government Decree 450/2024. (XII. 23.) which entered into force in January 2025. The decree restricts eligible third countries and halves the annual quota for migrant workers to 35,000. In 2025, work-permit applications to Finland dropped by approximately 25% compared to 2024, also due to the introduction of the “three-month rule,” which mandates that third-country workers must secure new employment within three months of losing their job or risk losing their residence permit. Finally, Sweden raised the minimum salary threshold for national work permit eligibility to 80% of the median wage in 2023 with a further increase to 90% introduced – starting in June 2026, to prevent low-wage exploitation and restricting migrants from taking entry-level jobs. Sweden also abolished a system known as “track change” which allowed refused asylum applicants to apply for a residence and work permit instead, without leaving Sweden. Policies that restrict secure residence can increase vulnerability to exploitation and undermine access to justice.

Several EU Member States made use of bilateral labour migration agreements with third countries. These agreements typically focus on channelling migrant workers into sectors with acute shortages – agriculture, construction, hospitality, care, and IT – while seeking to discourage irregular migration. Some of them promote readmission clauses, requiring third countries to repatriate irregular migrants. For example, France and Morocco, Germany and Colombia, Poland and Vietnam as well as Spain and Egypt, negotiated new or expanded existing agreements. All these agreements include some references to protecting migrant workers’ rights.

EU Member States have raised or optimised quotas for non-EU workers, especially in agriculture, caregiving, construction, and tourism. For example, Italy expanded its 2025 migration quota to 165,000 non-EU nationals, tying a portion of these to citizens of countries that signed migration cooperation agreements with Italy. Romania maintained its annual quota at 100,000 first-time permits, but employer demand far outstripped supply, prompting calls for further increases.

Spain’s Collective Management of Hiring at Origin (GECCO) program provides migrant workers with a four-year multi-entry work permit, enabling up to nine months of annual employment and residence in the country. It incorporates key protections, such as bans on recruitment fees, mandates for employers to cover one-way travel costs, and requirements to supply adequate housing. The programme – launched in 2000 – has achieved record figures for circular migration in 2025, as the Prime Minister reported in December 2025. A total of 25,767 migrants benefited, exceeding the more than 20,000 participants in 2024 and the 19,000 in 2023.

In line with international calls to expand “complementary pathways,” some EU Member States have piloted labour migration routes specifically for refugees living in third countries. Initiatives in Belgium, Ireland, and Italy allow skilled refugees to apply for regular work visas, often with administrative support from NGOs. Germany launched an initiative giving German employers access to a pool of 140,000 skilled refugees worldwide and support in navigating visa rules.

FRA has repeatedly stressed that workers’ insecure residence status heightens the risk of exploitation, underscoring the need to address labour shortages through safe and regular migration channels that protect workers’ rights. Various FRA reports recommend more labour inspections in high-risk sectors, effective access to complaints, and providing migrant workers with clear and targeted information about their rights and support services.

EU Member States faced persistent challenges in preventing exploitation and abuse of migrant workers. For example, in FRA’s 2026 Violence and related human rights abuses against women fleeing the war in Ukraine survey, among those women who had done paid work in the EU, 29% reported working very long hours, 24 % said they were underpaid or not paid at all, and 12 % were prohibited from taking breaks.

The Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA)’s report of February 2026 on Measures to prevent and detect vulnerabilities to human trafficking identifies migrant workers as a high‑risk group for labour exploitation and stresses the need for strengthened measures—such as better oversight and targeted prevention efforts—to reduce their vulnerability to trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation.

High-profile cases, such as Portugal’s “Operation Mirror” involving trafficking and forced labour of migrants from several countries underscore the risks of insufficient enforcement and oversight.