"Responsible Recruitment: Addressing Gaps in Protections for Migrant Workers", June 2018

... This report outlines the considerable gaps in protection for migrant workers and offers some practical suggestions to businesses seeking to recruit responsibly in challenging environments. This report focuses on the recruitment process that takes low-paid migrant workers from Nepal to work in the Gulf states, where many work in the region’s booming and highly competitive construction sector... 

Key recommendations for businesses:

• Develop recruitment policies that adopt the Employer Pays Principle...
• Develop a pre-qualification review process for prospective suppliers that, at a minimum, reviews supplier recruitment guidelines and practices...
• Establish robust screening and selection processes for key business relationships, such as suppliers and sending and receiving country recruitment agencies, including assessing their ability to comply with responsible recruitment policies...
• Include in all procurement tenders and contracts between suppliers and recruitment agencies a requirement to have welfare and human rights requirements including on responsible recruitment...
• Map the various points of leverage that are available to a business to help drive more responsible recruitment practices whether via traditional commercial leverage, leverage through collective action with business partners and peers, or via bilateral or multi-stakeholder engagement and collaboration with governments, trade unions and civil society, and other stakeholders...