The purpose of this ethnographic study is to shed light on how women view their migration and work abroad. The findings challenge conventional narratives on labour migration of women and bring out important perspectives that invaluably inform policymaking.
The research provides in-depth qualitative data on women labour migration, free of a priori judgment in a context where such activity remains contested in many parts of society. The aim is to present on women’s migratory journeys and in the process re-visit these gender constructions, as well as the social class ranking that associates honour and rank with a specific gender order. It is an important reference for academics, activists and Government practitioners.
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Effective legislation and regulations on recruitment processes, for both national and migrant workers, help to curtail forced labour and trafficking. Beyond adopting or amending legislation on recruitment, parliamentarians can request the adoption of implementing decrees and hold the government accountable for monitoring implementation. Promoting fair recruitment practices, and averting the occurrence or risk of forced labour through the recruitment process, must be a fundamental part of any forced labour prevention strategy.
This handbook, co-published with the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), aims to help parliamentarians to make their contribution to global efforts to effectively combat the scourge of forced labour.
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Promoting fair recruitment is a critical priority in the context of both international and internal migration. As discussed in PART 1, a key finding of recent ILO research is that recruitment abuses – and in particular the payment of illegal recruitment fees and related costs – are one of the main ways in which forced labour and human trafficking enters supply chains.
The adoption of laws and regulations to help ensure that workers and jobseekers are not charged recruitment or related costs, or subjected to other recruitment-related abuses – addressed in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and international legal standards – is therefore critical to broader efforts against forced labour and human trafficking.
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This toolkit provides information and advice to media professionals on how to report accurately and effectively on forced labour and fair recruitment. The toolkit includes the Media-friendly glossary on migration.
This toolkit is available in: Arabic, English, French, Spanish.
The toolkit has been adapted to the national context in:
Nepal (English)
Nigeria (forthcoming)
Pakistan (English)
Viet Nam (English, Vietnamese).
Click on each language to open the corresponding toolkit.
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This list presents a series of promising fair recruitment practices and results from a stocktaking exercise undertaken five years after the launch of the Fair Recruitment Initiative (FRI).
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The Fair Recruitment Initiative (FRI) was launched in 2014 as part of the ILO Fair Migration Agenda. Since its launch, the FRI has been critical to ILO’s work in the area of national and international recruitment of workers and has added renewed impetus and visibility to this important topic. The 2021-2025 Strategy will continue to be grounded in relevant international labour standards (ILS), global guidance, and social dialogue between governance institutions and actors of the labour market.
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The 2021 Global Estimates reveal that, at any time during the reporting period, 49.6 million people were victims of modern slavery, either forced to work against their will or to live in a marriage without their consent.
Among the victims of modern slavery, forced labour accounts for 27.6 million and forced marriage for 22 million. According to the same report, a significant portion of forced labour cases can be attributed to abuses that occur during the recruitment phase. This report therefore calls for the promotion of fair and ethical recruitment to protect workers from abusive and fraudulent practices during the recruitment and placement process, including the charging of exorbitant recruitment fees and related expenses by unscrupulous recruitment agencies and labour brokers.
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Although present literature provides guidance on fair and ethical recruitment, there is a lack of attention on how the procurement of labour recruiters’ services can be leveraged to prevent forced labour and exploitation in global supply chains. Labour recruiters have been essential not only in meeting the global demand for migrant labour, but also in ensuring the rights of migrant workers and upholding fair and ethical recruitment principles. This study focuses on the procurement process as an early step in managing forced labour risks for migrant workers when engaging with labour recruiters.
To provide practical examples on improving procurement practices and integrating fair and ethical recruitment standards in the supply chain management of business enterprises, this research uses case studies, key informant interviews, and desk reviews to identify common challenges and barriers to the adoption of ethical procurement practices.
The identified challenges and successes from actual cases further guide the recommendations to mainstream ethical recruitment in the procurement of labour recruiters’ services. In line with IOM’s mission, this study provides a strong foundation for building the case for labour recruiters to fulfill their responsibility to respect migrant workers’ rights.
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This document describes the lessons learned by the Work in Freedom programme on policy and programme responses to unfree labour in destination countries for migrant women workers. This compilation was preceded by an earlier edition of Lessons Learned in October 2021 on recruitment of migrant workers, and another one in April 2021, on outreach to migrant women in areas of origin.
This paper documents the lessons learned by the Work in Freedom Programme regarding policy and programme responses to unfree labour in destination countries for migrant women workers. While anti-trafficking programmes tend to pay significantly more attention to migration and recruitment, these lessons illustrate ten years of cumulated experience reducing vulnerability to forced labour in domestic and garment sectors of South and West Asia.
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Donors, Governments, international organizations, unions, employers and other civil actors often seek solutions to prevent human trafficking. This is a list of the ten most common misconceptions among policy makers, related facts and recommended laws, policies and practices drawing on the experience of the Work in Freedom Programme.
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