For years, foreign employment has generated substantial inflows of remittances and has contributed to the development of livelihoods particularly among low income households in Sri Lanka. With the governance of international labour migration shifting from a primarily state-driven system to a market driven system in Sri Lanka, private recruitment agencies have flourished in the country. This has given rise to a number of human labour rights concerns. Despite well-intentioned efforts, the recruitment sector is still plagued by widespread allegations of malpractices, corruptions, and exploitation of migrant workers.

As part of its Fair Recruitment Initiative the ILO with the support of the European Commission, is undertaking a three-year global project titled “Global Action to Improve the Recruitment Framework of Labour Migration” (REFRAME) with the aim of reducing abusive practices and violations of human and labour rights during the recruitment process.

With the intention of sensitizing media on labour recruitment issues, investigating recruitment abuses and on promoting migrant workers’ rights, the REFRAME project will be engaging with the media to improve media coverage of issues related to labour migration and to enhance access to reliable information and awareness on fair recruitment and promote a more balanced narrative on labour migration.

The workshop on Sensitizing Media on Forced Labour and Fair Recruitment was a follow up to the program held in Jordan last year that brought together professional journalists and media trainers from fifteen different countries. During the workshop the participants were presented with an ILO toolkit ‘Reporting on forced labour and fair recruitment’ localized for the Sri Lankan journalists and is available in local languages. This national level initiative will continue to take place in regional levels.