IOM Launches Fair and Ethical Recruitment Due Diligence Toolkit to Support Businesses and Protect Migrant Workers

The initiative places the needs of migrant workers at the forefront. Photo: IOM

Manila — The International Organization for Migration (IOM) today is launching the Fair and Ethical Recruitment Due Diligence Toolkit to support business enterprises in conducting comprehensive due diligence to ensure the fair and ethical recruitment of migrant workers.    

When migrant workers are not protected by law or are unable to exercise their rights, migration is irregular or poorly governed, or where recruitment practices are unfair or unethical, migration can lead to situations of vulnerability. 

 “At IOM, we place the needs of migrants at the forefront, and this includes working with the private sector to promote the protection of migrants at every stage of the recruitment process,” said IOM Deputy Director for Management and Reform, Amy Pope.  “We understand that supply chain responsibility is complex and creating sustainable interventions that enable change must be driven by innovation, results, and collaboration,” she added.   

“The development of a comprehensive and practical Toolkit that can be utilized by business enterprises and their supply chain partners to better protect migrants is a direct result of the partnership between IOM and Apple,” continued the Deputy Director General. 

 The Toolkit, developed in collaboration with Apple, aims to promote respect for migrant workers’ rights in global supply chains by strengthening due diligence processes in international recruitment through innovative solutions. It supports enterprises to operationalize and translate the principles and key due diligence processes in UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct, and IOM’s Migrant Worker Guidelines into practice.  

 “At Apple, people come first in everything we do,” said Sarah Chandler, Apple’s Vice President of Environment and Supply Chain Innovation. “We have long been focused on advancing programs on labor and human rights, including the free movement of people in and out of our supply chain, without exception, everywhere we operate. We’re proud to collaborate with the IOM and to share these tools that can help businesses around the world accelerate progress in responsible labor recruitment in their own supply chains.” 

All businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights and undertake due diligence to ensure any potential adverse human rights impacts are identified and addressed. The Toolkit  helps users facilitate their due diligence processes, keep track of their progress and communicate the results of their efforts to promote fair and ethical recruitment. 

The development and sharing of the Toolkit contribute to a larger multi-stakeholder effort to ensure fair and ethical recruitment in line with the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The open-source tools can be adopted by business enterprises across different industries to enhance the ability of migrant workers’ rights to be respected, and the benefits of migration to be fully realized. 

 “To increase impact, it is hoped that such innovative tools are not only utilized by the private sector, but more broadly promoted by governments with due diligence laws to better enable the upholding of human rights in supply chains for migrant workers,” closed Deputy Director General Amy Pope.  

The Fair and Ethical Recruitment Due Diligence Toolkit can be accessed here by enterprises and the general public.

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For more information, please contact IOM at IOM DD Support iom.dd.support@iom.int and Project Manager Yuko Tomita, ytomita@iom.int