Gender equality in labour migration law, policy and management (GEM Toolkit)

Regional operational guidelines on fair and ethical recruitment in ASEAN. Improving regulation and enforcement: A resource for regulators

The regional operational guidelines provide guidance to government regulators on fair recruitment practices, licensing private recruitment agencies, monitoring recruitment processes, and acting on complaints related to the recruitment process. Developed within the framework of the ILO general principles and operational guidelines for fair recruitment, these regional operational guidelines are relevant to both countries of origin and destination.

Labour migration plays an important role in fostering economic and social development in the ASEAN region. Fair and ethical recruitment can protect migrant workers from experiencing labour rights’ violations, including trafficking and forced labour. However, recruitment is often an imperfect process, characterized by fraudulent and exploitative practices. These imperfections have been particularly damaging to the interest of workers seeking jobs across national borders.

The new ILO regional operational guidelines on fair and ethical recruitment provide guidance on licensing of private recruitment agencies, the monitoring of recruitment processes, effective inspection and enforcement mechanisms, and acting on complaints. The regional operational guidelines have been developed as a practical resource for regulators in the ASEAN region and are intended to apply to both countries of origin, and destination, depending on the context.

Regulating recruitment of migrant workers: An assessment of complaint mechanisms in Thailand

This report provides the findings of an analysis of the legal framework and the complaint mechanisms for workers with grievances to seek redress - and puts forward recommendations for strengthening the system.

Media-friendly glossary on migration

The use of the right terminology is key for quality reporting, to avoid stigmatization and positively influence the debate on migration.

• Available in Arabic, English, French, French (Madagascar), Nepali (English), Spanish and Vietnamese (English and Vietnamese).
• Adapted to the national context in Indonesia (Bahasa), Madagascar (French), Nepal (English), Thailand (Thai), and Vietnam (English  and Vietnamese).

Ensuring migrant workers access to justice: An assessment of Thailand’s Migrant Workers Assistance Centers

To increase migrant workers’ access to justice in Thailand, in 2016 the Ministry of Labour established Migrant Workers Assistance Centers in ten provinces throughout the country. By April 2019, the ten centres had delivered services to nearly 125,000 migrant workers from Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Myanmar.

Recruitment Monitoring & Migrant Welfare Assistance: What Works?

As numbers of temporary labour migrants have rapidly increased over the past four decades, facilitating international migration has become a highly profitable and multi-faceted business. Human rights defenders, civil society organisations, journalists and academics have consistently exposed exploitation of migrants which occurs during recruitment processes. Abuses include high recruitment fees that lead to debt bondage, the processing of fake employment and immigration documents, confiscation of identity documents, and emotional and physical violence, or even trafficking for forced labour. On arriving in many destination countries migrants are left unprotected and vulnerable to more exploitation.

This study, conducted by an international research team between January and April 2014, reviews existing recruitment monitoring mechanisms and migrants’ access to rights and welfare assistance across Colombo Process Member States (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam), and key destination states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Yemen).  With analysis presented thematically, the report concludes with a series of recommendations for Colombo Process governments.