Review of law, policy and practice of recruitment of migrant workers in Sri Lanka

This review provides an overview of legislative and policy frameworks concerning recruitment of migrant workers in Sri Lanka. The review identifies gaps in relation to the ILO General Principles and Operational Guidelines for Fair Recruitment, and proposes recommendations for ensuring fair recruitment.

Responsible Recruitment Gateway

The Responsible Recruitment Gateway is home to the Employer Pays Principle increasingly being adopted by companies across sectors and around the world.

The Gateway hosts a growing resource bank to help companies move towards an ethical recruitment.

It is also a platform for the Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment, convened by IHRB. All members of the Leadership Group are publicly committed to the Employer Pays Principle and its implementation throughout their supply chains. The Leadership Group's aim is bold - the total eradication of fees being charged to migrant workers to secure employment

The Leadership Group acts as a vehicle for advocacy and collaboration, and serves as a knowledge hub for sharing good practice, tools, and guidance in relation to responsible recruitment. To achieve its vision of a world where no worker pays fees to secure employment, the Leadership Group seeks to catalyse leadership among an expanding membership base of companies committed to responsible recruitment.

Responsible Recruitment: Remediating Worker-Paid Recruitment Fees

This report focuses on the sixth step concerning remediation. Some companies have sought to reimburse worker-paid recruitment fees. This is an important step and consistent with the UNGPs which calls on companies to provide for or cooperate in remediation when they have caused or contributed to adverse human rights impacts. However, businesses face serious challenges in repaying affected migrant workers. This report identifies the challenges related to reimbursing recruitment fees and provides recommendations to businesses on how to apply remediation policies across their activities.

IOM training on ethical recruitment

The International Organization for Migration supports recruiters, suppliers (employers) and brands to strengthen their internal control mechanisms and implement ethical recruitment practices through its two initiatives:

IRIS: Ethical Recruitment, is IOM's flagship initiative to promote ethical recruitment which is fair for everyone involved: migrant workers, employers, recruiters and countries of origin and destination. IRIS, as a global multi-stakeholder initiative works with and supports governments, civil society, the private sector and recruiters to establish ethical recruitment as a norm in cross-border labour migration. Read more at iris.iom.int

The Corporate Responsibility in Eliminating Slavery and Trafficking (CREST) is a partnership initiative that aims to realize the potential of business to uphold the human and labour rights of migrant workers in their operations and supply chains. Read more at crest.iom.int

Guidelines for Labour Recruiters on Ethical Recruitment, Decent Work and Access to Remedy for Migrant Domestic Workers

This publication is to inform labour recruiters on best practices for promoting, facilitating and ensuring the ethical recruitment of migrant domestic workers. The guidelines are derived from the International Recruitment Integrity System (IRIS) Standard, developed by IOM through an extensive multi-stakeholder consultation process. The guidelines follow the seven IRIS principles, offering special guidance and best practices tailored for the migrant domestic workers recruitment industry.

The guidelines were developed under the project Asia Region: Promoting Ethical Recruitment and Decent Work among Private Sector Partners by Strengthening Company Policies to Protect Domestic Workers. While the project focuses on the recruitment of migrant domestic workers to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, from Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines, these guidelines are relevant to recruiters of migrant domestic workers across migration corridors and globally.