Businesses and Fair Recruitment: promoting responsible business conduct via the joint ILO-EU REFRAME project

The Regional Multi-stakeholder Forum: Responsible Business Conduct for Safe Labour Migration in ASEAN, supported by the joint ILO-EU REFRAME project, brought together over 90 participants ASEAN ministries in charge of migration and people trafficking, ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights, migrant workers’ organisations, employers’ associations, recruitment agencies, trade unions, women’s groups, civil society organisations, and think-tanks. The forum highlighted good practices and policies at government and company levels to ensure that unfair, exploitative or abusive labour practices of private companies’ partners, suppliers or sub-contractors are addressed, including unethical recruitment.

Mr Khalid Hassan, Director of the ILO in Manila, moderated a session on regional business practices, which inspired participants to promote responsible business conduct in the ASEAN and discuss their contribution to safe labour migration through fair and ethical recruitment. The ASEAN Business Forum on Labour Migration is perceived by many as ASEAN’s forward looking initiative envisaging the benefits of the Global Compact on Migration for the Southeast Asia region. The ongoing ASEAN efforts to promote safe labour migration by implementing the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (ASEAN Consensus), and ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (ACTIP) would add value to ASEAN member states’ implementation of the Global Compact in the future following its adoption by the UN General Assembly.

Relevant projects

Global Action to Improve the Recruitment Framework of Labour Migration (REFRAME)

Global Action to Improve the Recruitment Framework of Labour Migration (REFRAME)