Background

Recruitment is usually the first act in establishing an employment relationship, and the experiences of the worker during the recruitment stage can establish their working conditions and migration outcomes. Many elements that make workers vulnerable to exploitation occur in the recruitment phase. For example, deception about the nature and conditions of the work, payment of recruitment fees and costs which can result in debt bondage, and confiscation of passports and identity documents. Many of these unfair practices correspond to the ILO indicators of forced labour. Establishing fair recruitment practices is a therefore a critical component for elimination of modern slavery practices. Alliance 8.7 is an inclusive global partnership committed to achieving target 8.7 of the 2030 sustainable development goals, namely to eradicate forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour. Its practical implementation takes place at the country level, and is articulated in national action plans on Forced Labour and Human Trafficking and/or on Child Labour. To date the network includes 26 Pathfinder countries, i.e., countries that have pledged to accelerate progress towards the target through membership in the Alliance, and 373 partner institutions. These include international and regional organizations, workers’ organizations, employer and business membership organizations, civil society organizations, academic institutions and other relevant stakeholders and networks. The ILO acts as Alliance 8.7 Secretariat. The network has adopted three strategic objectives: 1) accelerating action, 2) conducting research and sharing knowledge, and 3), driving innovation and leveraging resources.

The network collectively promotes and leverages synergies with interrelated SDGs and networks. Among these, goal 8 (decent work, and target 8.8: labour rights of migrant workers), goal 10 (reduced inequalities, and target 10.7: responsible migration and mobility), among others, are of particular importance to another key initiative driven by the ILO, namely the Fair Recruitment Initiative. The ILO Fair Recruitment Initiative (FRI), launched in 2014 is presently implementing its second 5-year strategy (2021-2025). The initiative is active at global, regional and country levels through the participation of key stakeholders in the national and cross-border recruitment processes, including governments and public institutions, private sector actors (recruitment industry and employers), workers’ organisations, and civil society organisations. The FRI is guided by an Advisory Committee, which comprises representatives from Tunisia and Mexico (which also co-chairs the FRI AC jointly with Italy) both of which are also Alliance 8.7 Pathfinder countries. The purpose of the Pathfinder dialogues PFC members to discuss, among themselves and with invited national partners, their challenges and progress on certain themes towards meeting SDG 8.7. This event focused on the theme of fair recruitment also contributes to enhancing, exchanging and disseminating global knowledge on national and international recruitment processes, in line with the first strategic pillar of the ILO FRI. from this, specific objectives of the meeting are to:

- Increase the understanding of fair recruitment as an effective and practical strategy to eradicate forced labour;

- Facilitate the exchange of knowledge with and amongst the members of Alliance 8.7;

- Introduce the members of Alliance 8.7 to the ILO FRI Strategy and its Knowledge Hub on fair recruitment. The FRI Knowledge Hub seeks to facilitate access to peer-to-peer support and learning opportunities around global/regional knowledge sharing events focused on emerging practices and innovations.

The target audience of the meeting are the Alliance 8.7 focal points (within PFC Ministries of Labour); selected stakeholders engaged in fair recruitment efforts (that PFC focal points or ILO might recommend), from national institutions as well as social partners. The members of the Advisory Committee of the ILO Fair Recruitment Initiative (FRI) who are from PFCs are also invited to participate in the dialogue.

Discussion topics

1. Fair recruitment as key driver in preventing labour exploitation, forced labour, and TIP.

2. Examples of country level interventions by national institutions, workers’ organisations, private sector actors.

3. Integration of fair recruitment promotion/interventions as part of national action plans for forced labour and TIP. To what extent is this done?

4. Information from ILO about the Fair Recruitment Initiative and related tools, resources, and knowledge sharing opportunities.

For more information about the event please contact: fairrecruitmentinitiative@ilo.org. If you missed the event you can watch some extracts of the event here.

Key documents