Nestle has reported serious employee abuse in Thailand - where it discovered that migrant workers involved in the production of some of its fish products were lured to the country under false promises, exposed to dangerous working conditions, and subject to workplace violence and other abuses.

The company has published a comprehensive report as an act of self-policing - it warns that firms who source seafood from Thailand face an “endemic risk” of similar abuses existing in their supply chain.

After NGOs and media reports drew attention to labour abuses in the country Nestle launched this investigation in December 2014.

Slave-like conditions have been uncovered in Thailand - most of these workers enter the country illegally from neighbouring Cambodia and Myanmar using fake documents. Workers were subject to chronic sleep deprivation and an insufficient supply of water while working 16 hour days and 7 day weeks.

“Sometimes, the net is too heavy, and workers get pulled into the water and just disappear,” one worker quoted in the report said.

They continued, “When someone dies, he gets thrown into the water.”

Nestle is now drafting new requirements which potential suppliers must satisfy. The company, which is the largest food group in the world, says that as a "leader in the industry" it hopes that its reforms will "have a positive impact on the whole industry by raising the bar on labour protection."