Fair International Recruitment against Slavery and Trafficking (FIRST)

In 2017, the Department of Overseas Labor (DOLAB) reported over 118,000 migrant workers deployed overseas. Weak regulatory oversight of recruitment agencies, coupled with limited administrative enforcement (related to recruitment agency practices) and criminal law enforcement (related to human trafficking prosecutions) allow unethical and illegal recruitment practices to persist in Viet Nam that contribute to the prevalence of forced labor, human trafficking and modern slavery. Characteristic of the Vietnamese recruitment model, excessive recruitment and ‘deposit’ fees create situations of debt bondage, deceptive recruitment practices and limited or no access to remedy further exacerbates the vulnerabilities of migrant workers to modern slavery. Reducing fees and costs chargeable to migrant workers should reduce the amount of debt they carry to the destination workplace. Increasing opportunities to recover lost wages or excessive fees should contribute to shifting the recruitment model and aligning it with international standards, good practices and the demand of the global supply chains. These concepts, however, remain to be tested in the ASEAN region. An inception, testing and pilot intervention to explore and develop these ideas in the Vietnamese context and utilizes the existing dynamic labor migration and counter-trafficking programming and frameworks for delivery through the ILO’s TRIANGLE in ASEAN, IOM’s Corporate Responsibility in Eliminating Slavery and Trafficking initiative (CREST) and Responsible Business Alliance’s (RBA) Responsible Labor Initiative programs is proposed. The overall objective is to provide an evidence-based implementation framework demonstrating that: fair and ethical recruitment agencies can deliver responsible recruitment, through the reduction of migration costs, debt and increased information available to migrant workers that will reduce instances of exploitation, forced labor and debt bondage experienced by Vietnamese women and men migrant workers. ILO, IOM and RBA propose a suite of research products, pilot activities and mapping and feasibility to inform a future investment in improving recruitment agency practices and providing more transparent labor supply chain mapping to ethical employers. The inception phase will examine how to strengthen the operation of systems, such as the Vietnamese Association of Manpower and Supply’s (VAMAS) Code of Conduct monitoring and ranking, and how improved recruitment practices can create business opportunities by linking responsible recruitment agencies to destination workplaces through RBA verification. The intervention will allow the RBA to increase insight and clarity of recruitment practices in Viet Nam as a major origin community for their own Responsible Recruitment Program (RRP). Central to the achievement of these goals will be drawing on the experiences of migrant workers and survivors of exploitation. Migrant workers, their families and their communities provide the impetus and the accountability, with migrant stories informing learning and creating business disincentives through increasing the lodgment of complaints for recruitment abuses, using the existing network of Migrant Worker Resource Centers (MRCs) supported by the ILO. RBA, specifically, will conduct a worker survey through RBA-member companies based in Taiwan (many which employ Vietnamese migrant workers). This will illuminate the nature of migration from Vietnam and unethical practices, if any, that need to be mitigated. RBA's three-step Responsible Recruitment Program verification process will provide training resources for recruitment agencies seeking to adopt better practices and also incentivize ethical behavior by leveraging demand through member companies. RBA, in combination with IOM and ILO, will provide critical private sector input to ensuring sustainability of changes in the Vietnam migration process.

Project symbol

VNM/18/01/GFM

Admin unit

CO-Hanoi

Start date

19/12/2018

End date

10/05/2020

Total allocation

417858

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

417858

Development Partners

Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS)

Country/Countries

Viet Nam

Outcomes

Outcome 7: Adequate and effective protection at work for all