Empowering Migrant Workers: Lessons Learned from ILO Migrant Worker Resource Centres in the ASEAN region

This publication draws on the experience of the International Labour Organisation’s support for Migrant Worker Resource Centres (MRCs) in the ASEAN region. It highlights how these centres improve access to information, legal aid, and social protection for migrant workers while promoting safe migration, decent work, and long-term sustainability through strong community partnerships and rights-based approaches.

MRCs offer a wide range of services, including counselling, psychosocial support, legal aid, information, outreach, pre-migration and post-return training, and targeted programmes for migrant women, people with disabilities, fishers, seafood processors and domestic workers. Their role in organizing migrant workers into networks and trade unions has helped build a collective voice and empower migrant workers.

The publication offers practical guidance to governments, trade unions and civil society organizations on improving delivery of information and services to support safe migration for decent work. It advocates for further investments in community-based support structures that prioritize the labour rights and empowerment of migrant workers. It was commissioned by the ILO's TRIANGLE in ASEAN, Safe and Fair/ PROTECT and Ship to Shore Rights programmes.

Wage Protection Systems in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries: A regional analysis

This report, developed by the ILO in close collaboration with the GCC Executive Bureau, addresses a critical knowledge gap concerning the design and operation of Wage Protection Systems (WPS) in GCC countries. Drawing on public documentation and feedback from GCC government focal points (including insights from a joint workshop in February 2024), the report offers a critical analysis of existing WPS frameworks. It provides valuable insights and advances key recommendations for policymakers and practitioners to strengthen WPSs. These recommendations focus on four areas: extending coverage to all vulnerable workers (including mandatory inclusion for domestic workers), capturing high-quality data, improving the detection of wage violations, and linking violations to robust enforcement and compensation mechanisms.

Fair Recruitment Initiative Strategy 2026-2030: The way forward, from policy to practice

The Fair Recruitment Initiative (FRI) was launched by the ILO in 2014 to ensure fair recruitment of workers at the national and international level, bringing renewed visibility to this important issue. Over the years, the FRI has become a central pillar of the ILO’s Fair Migration Agenda and has strengthened collaboration among governments, employers, and workers to ensure transparent recruitment practices that protect workers' rights and uphold international labour standards through social dialogue and fair treatment. 

The Fair Recruitment Initiative Strategy 2026–2030 sets a clear path forward: moving from principles and guidance to practical implementation and enforcement, to make fair recruitment a reality for all workers, across all sectors and countries, within and across borders. The new strategy was conceived as an inclusive process, reflecting evidence and data collected across countries, key migration corridors and high-risk sectors to ensure targeted interventions that tackle emerging challenges. 

This work builds on a decade of experiences, achievements, and lessons learned. This new strategy has also benefited from the rich exchanges and inputs generated during the Global Conference “Fair Recruitment Initiative: The way forward, from policy to practice”, held in May. This conference, that brought together government officials, employers' and workers' representatives, recruitment agencies, international organizations, and researchers provided valuable guidance for moving from policy commitments to practical implementation. This tripartite high-level discussion served as a platform to review progress, explore practical solutions, and strengthen collaboration with stakeholders. The event marked the launch of this new strategy, reaffirming a common commitment to advancing fair recruitment through collective action. 

Content available in English, español and français.

Guide to private employment agencies - second (revised) edition

Private employment agencies are increasingly shaping the world of work - connecting job seekers to opportunities, helping employers meet skills needs, and supporting more dynamic labour markets. Yet with this growing influence comes responsibility: promoting fair recruitment, protecting workers’ rights, and maintaining trust in labour market systems.

Why This Guide Matters
This revised Guide provides governments, employers, workers, and practitioners with a comprehensive framework for fair, transparent, and effective employment services. It highlights the vital role PrEAs play in improving labour market functionality while focusing on two key pillars: labour market alignment and fair recruitment practices.

Responding to Today’s Labour Market
Rapid changes - from digitalization and demographic shifts to migration and the green transition - demand flexible, robust regulatory systems. This Guide shows how PrEAs can adapt by strengthening oversight, leveraging digital tools, and aligning with international labour standards.

Partnership is Key
Drawing on ILO Conventions No. 181 and No. 88, the Guide emphasizes collaboration between public and private employment services. Strategic partnerships improve job matching, strengthen active labour market policies, and expand access to opportunities for those in vulnerable situations. Practical examples, from common terminology and shared digital platforms to joint monitoring systems, show how cooperation enhances efficiency and fairness.

Fair Recruitment: A Shared Responsibility
Fair and transparent recruitment is essential for all workers, especially for migrant workers. Embedding these principles across employment services strengthens trust and advances decent work globally.

A Call to Action
This Guide is more than a reference - it’s an invitation to act. Governments can create responsive frameworks, employers and PrEAs can uphold high professional standards, and workers’ organizations can ensure voices are heard. Together, we can make labour markets more inclusive, transparent, and fair.

This content is avalailbe in English and Español.

Promising practices for fair recruitment in Côte d'Ivoire: Development of an international placement service by the Youth Employment Agency

Côte d’Ivoire's Youth Employment Agency (Agence nationale pour l’insertion et l’emploi des jeunes), with ILO support, has developed an international placement service to promote fair recruitment and labour migration.

This initiative comes in response to the significant informal recruitment sector in Côte d’Ivoire, despite existing regulatory frameworks. Historically a labour immigration destination, the country has seen a rise in emigration in recent years, with a substantial portion of the youth workforce (63 per cent aged 14-35) seeking decent work opportunities abroad, often leading to irregular migration.

The Agence Emploi Jeunes, under the Ministry of Youth, focuses on job placement, regulation of private employment agencies, and supporting job creation and skills development. Following a systemic organizational assessment in April 2023, the need for a dedicated international placement service was identified. This led to a strategic workshop in November 2023, where operational guidelines and a roadmap for implementation were established.

In May 2024, Ivorian representatives learned from Morocco's successful international placement practices, which were then adapted and finalized for local implementation. By February 2025, staff training and the launch of nine pilot sites were completed, resulting in 25 successful international placements. This initiative highlights the importance of local ownership, international collaboration, and strong political commitment in advancing fair recruitment practices.

Content available in English and French.

Promising practices for fair recruitment in Hong Kong (China): Promoting fair recruitment of domestic workers: Behavioural insights to encourage employer due diligence

This promising practice presents the findings from a behavioural research study conducted as part of the ILO’s FAIR III project, which aims to promote fair recruitment.

In Hong Kong, despite the 2017 Code of Practice for Employment Agencies, unfair and illegal recruitment practices persist. Employers play a critical role in shaping recruitment outcomes, yet many remain unaware of their responsibilities or the risks involved. This research explored how behavioral science (the study of how individuals make decisions and respond to various influences) can be applied to encourage employer due diligence and support fair recruitment.

Through qualitative interviews, a randomized-controlled trial and the development of an innovative online game, the study tested different message framings to influence employer behaviour. The findings provide practical recommendations to strengthen policies, interventions, and outreach strategies so as to better protect migrant domestic workers and promote fair recruitment practices in Hong Kong.

Enquête sur le coût de recrutement des travailleurs migrants internationaux et de retour au Maroc

Cette enquête a pour objectif de valider la conception des modules d’enquête nécessaires à la production de statistiques conforment aux recommandations de la 20ème CIST concernant les statistiques sur la migration internationale de main d’oeuvre et aux directives de l’Organisation Internationale du Travail (OIT) et de la Banque Mondiale sur les coûts de recrutement.

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Suite à la signature du protocole d’accord entre l’OIT et le Haut-Commissariat au Plan (HCP) du Maroc , des travaux ont été menés pour établir un système global de statistiques sur les migrations de main-d’oeuvre.  Ce système doit assurer le suivi et l’élaboration de politiques fondées sur des données probantes, tel que souligné dans  le Pacte mondial sur les migrations et l’Agenda des objectifs de béveloppement durable. Dans ce cadre, un ensemble d’activités d’assistance technique sont mises en œuvre par l’OIT pour accompagner le HCP dans la refonte de l’Enquête nationale sur l’emploi. 

Des interventions stratégiques et de nouveaux outils sont en cours de développement pour produire des statistiques visant à documenter et améliorer la gouvernance des migrations de main-d’oeuvre.

L’objectif de ce rapport est d’évaluer la conception des modules pour produire des statistiques sur migration de main-d’œuvre, en tenant en compte principalement (1) des dernières recommandations de la Conférence internationale des statisticiens du travail (CIST) concernant les statistiques du travail et (2) du calcul de l’indicateur de l’Objectif de développement durable (ODD) 10.7.1, qui mesure les coûts de recrutement des travailleurs migrants internationaux et des travailleurs migrants de retour.

Ces données faciliteront l’élaboration de politiques efficaces, qui protègent les droits des travailleurs migrants et assurent une bonne gestion de la migration de main d’œuvre, tout en promouvant le développement durable dans les pays d’origine et de destination.

Migrant domestic and garment workers in Jordan: A baseline analysis of trafficking in persons and related laws and policies

This study reviews the legal context of migration and work in Jordan’s garment and domestic work sectors. It describes gaps in law and practice in relation to international labour standards.

The Labyrinth of justice: Migrant domestic workers before Lebanon’s courts

This study is documentary research of jurisprudence regarding migrant domestic workers in Lebanon. It reviews and identifies the systemic flaws of Lebanon’s judiciary system in delivering justice to migrant domestic workers and explains why migrant women keep a distance from law enforcement processes.

Also available in Arabic. A video of the presentation is available.

Preventing Discrimination, Exploitation and Abuse of Women Migrant Workers - An Information Guide

This information guide of 6 booklets aims to enhance knowledge and understanding of the vulnerability of migrant workers, especially women, to discrimination, exploitation and abuse throughout the international labour migration process and to promote and improve legislation, policies and action to prevent these problems and to better protect vulnerable workers.

Contains

1. Booklet 1. Introduction: Why the focus on women international migrant workers
2. Booklet 2. Decision-making and preparing for employment abroad
3. Booklet 3. Recruitment and the journey for employment abroad
4. Booklet 4. Working and living conditions
5. Booklet 5. Back home: Return and reintegration
6. Booklet 6. Trafficking of women and girls