17 September | 13:15–14:30 ICT

From Commitment to Action: Emerging Fair and Ethical Recruitment Frameworks in Asia

Organized by:

International Organization for Migration
International Labour Organization

Background

Southeast Asia is a major hub of labour mobility and recruitment practices shape outcomes for millions of workers and thousands of employers across regional and global supply chains. When migrants shoulder recruitment fees and related costs, indebtedness heightens risks of coercion and forced labour – making recruitment a core governance and business issue rather than a niche concern. International benchmarks – including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, OECD due diligence guidance, and ILO’s General Principles and Operational Guidelines on Fair Recruitment and Definition of Recruitment Fees and Related Costs – converge on a clear baseline: workers should not pay for a job, recruitment must be lawful and transparent, and accountability spans the full chain.

Building on this baseline, practical solutions are increasingly available. Through its Migration, Business and Human Rights (MBHR) approach, IOM works with recruiters and employers to professionalise practices through standards-aligned guidance, verification support, and targeted capacity building. The IOM’s Migrant Worker Guidelines for Employers – including guidance on which cost items employers should bear – support concrete Employer Pays Principles implementation across priority sectors and migration corridors. In parallel, ILO’s supports governments in the region to review their regulatory frameworks on recruitment processes and costs in line with the International Labour Standards and the General Principles and Operational Guidelines on Fair Recruitment. It works with recruitment agency associations and employers to align their recruitment practices with these instruments, and organizes and empowers workers to advocate for and claim their right to fair recruitment.

In the ASEAN region, the “Checklist for ASEAN Member State governments, labour recruiters and employers of migrant workers on fair recruitment and decent employment practices” (ASEAN Checklist 2025), developed under the leadership of Brunei Darussalam and with support from the ILO, compiles existing ASEAN commitments[1] into a practical tool that enables measuring progress in advancing fair recruitment and decent employment practices in the region. While anchored in ASEAN’s Checklist 2025, the session examines good practices, application and interoperability across Asia – including key destination countries – so that governments, recruiters, and employers can adopt consistent, portable solutions.

[1] Including commitments made in the 2017 ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers and recommendations of past ASEAN Forums on Migrant Labour (AFMLs).

Key Objectives

Shared understanding of the ILO’s General Principles and Operational Guidelines on Fair Recruitment and how the ASEAN Checklist 2025 can help track national progress, including how it can guide national baselines and iterative improvements in regulation, licensing, inspections, and redress.
Share good practices and emerging initiatives from countries of origin and destination in the region, with spotlight on Japan [MP1] and the Philippines[MP2] .
Identify and prioritise 3 – 5 recommendations that can be prioritized for implementation within 12 months by ASEAN Member States and employers (e.g., publish fee/cost schedules; adopt standard bilingual contracts; enforce prohibition of passport retention/contract substitution; require recruiter due diligence; and enable worker-centred complaints, including cross-border redress.)

Guiding Questions

How can the ASEAN Checklist 2025 on fair and ethical recruitment serve a practical baseline and roadmap for emerging policy frameworks in the region? What indicators and light-touch data can be used now to baseline regulation, licensing, inspections and redress – and how might results feed into annual plans, public guidance, and future Checklist cycles?
What does “Employer Pays Principle” and other no-cost models look like in practice across countries of origin and destinations? Which portable tools make the biggest dent in worker-paid fees, and how can governments and companies verify impact (receipts, payroll checks, worker interviews)?
Which 3 – 5 actions should governments and employers prioritise over the next 12 months, and how will progress be evidenced?

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