Slideshow
Exhibition “Building a future of decent work for refugees and migrant workers”
The ILO is hosting a new exhibition highlighting the challenges and opportunities that migrant workers and refugees face and the positive impact that the ILO’s decent work approach can have on their lives.
Every year, millions of women and men leave their home countries in search of decent work opportunities for themselves and their families. Every year, millions of refugees are forced to leave behind everything they have ever known, to embark on an unknown journey of fear and uncertainty. These images bear witness to their stories and to the role decent work has in building a positive future for them and their countries of destination.

This Syrian refugee is one of more than 650,000 in Jordan, many struggling to meet basic needs amid high local unemployment. In Jordan, the ILO works with national and international partners to protect the rights of refugees at risk of exploitation in the workplace.
© Ahmad Faris / ILO

This young girl who fled Syria, earns US$3 a day in the agricultural sector in Lebanon. The ILO works with national partners in the main countries hosting Syrian refugees to reduce informality through access to legal work permits.
© Tabitha Ross / ILO

In Jordan, the ILO works with national and international partners to protect the rights of refugees at risk of exploitation in the workplace.
© Nadia Bseiso / ILO

Abject poverty leads some Syrian refugee families in Lebanon to send their children to work, often in hazardous conditions. The ILO supports field practitioners in helping to combat child labour in agriculture.
© Tabitha Ross / ILO

This Syrian refugee teacher provides temporary education assistance in a refugee camp’s primary school in Şanlıurfa, Turkey. She is also enrolled in an ILO-supported Turkish language course to improve her chances of finding more sustainable decent work opportunities outside the camp.
© Erkut Ertürk / ILO

The ILO and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, jointly run this project in Ethiopia to promote sustainable livelihoods for Somali refugees and host communities in the south-east region of Dolo Ado.
© Temesgen Bereso / ILO

An ILO-sponsored pre-decision orientation workshop aims to educate workers on their rights to ensure a safe, fair and positive migration experience for Nepalese women.
© Omar Havana / ILO

Migrant workers, like these in Northern Thailand, often work in high-risk sectors, such as construction. The ILO works to strengthen national occupational safety and health systems to improve protection of migrant workers.
© John Hulme / ILO

A Paraguayan live-in domestic worker in Argentina. She is one of the eleven million migrant domestic workers the ILO is helping to protect and empower through its global action programme.
© Lucio Boschi / ILO

Nets are hauled in for repair by a migrant fisherman in Ranong, Thailand. The ILO works with national partners to strengthen laws to protect migrant workers in the fishing industry.
© John Hulme / ILO

In Jordan, the ILO supports national partners in improving working conditions and employment contracts for migrant workers in the garment sector.
© Sami Haven / ILO

This Ethiopian returnee is receiving ILO-sponsored career counselling, skills and sustainable livelihood training, job-placement and access to finance, so she can start her own business.
© Aida Muluneh / ILO