Achieving fair and ethical recruitment: Improving regulation and enforcement in the ASEAN region

This report focuses on the efforts of ASEAN Member States to foster fair and ethical recruitment. It maps the laws and regulations, and moreover, the enforcement mechanisms States have employed, and reviews evidence of the results achieved.

Job information can be a rare commodity in the labour market – employers know what skills they need but not where to find them; while the workers know their skills but not who is in need of them. Intermediaries such as recruiters play a useful role in resolving this asymmetry of information. In the real world, however, the operation of the recruitment market is highly imperfect. Common recruitment-related abuses faced by migrant workers in elementary occupations include: paying exorbitant recruitment fees to recruiters, deception concerning the terms and conditions of employment contracts, processing fake documents, confiscation of passports or ID documents, and physical as well as emotional violence and threats. The ILO’s General Principles and Operational Guidelines for Fair Recruitment, call on Member States to adopt appropriate legislation and policies to protect the rights of migrant workers.

In the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, where labour migration has become prominent, fair and ethical recruitment can prevent migrant workers from experiencing abusive conditions, including trafficking and forced labour. This report focuses on the efforts of the ASEAN Member States to foster fair and ethical recruitment. It maps the laws and regulations of these Member States and the enforcement mechanisms they have employed, and reviews evidence of the results they may have achieved.