Focus on collaboration for fair, ethical recruitment

The Colombo Process (CP) member states emphasised the need for collaboration for promotion of fair and ethical recruitment to help ensure decent work and safe migration across South and Southeast Asia.
During the 9th meeting of CP's Thematic Area Working Group (TAWG), the member states finalised their four-year work-plan to further the goals of transforming the recruitment industry from the employee-pay model to the employer-pay model, ensuring decent work and safe migration.
The CP's TAWG on 'fostering ethical recruitment practices' concluded its two-day meeting in the city on Thursday, said a press release, issued by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Bangladesh.
Representatives from the CP member states, including Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam, met in a hybrid meeting to discuss the need for harmonisation of policies and regulations to address vulnerabilities of migrant workers.
The meeting was chaired by Bangladesh with the support of the Colombo Process Technical Support Unit (CPTSU), and the IOM Bangladesh.
The CP is a regional consultative process of 12 Asian countries that focuses on providing protection and provision of services to migrant workers as well as optimising the benefits of organised labour migration for sender and receiver countries for both migrants and their families.
Joining the inaugural session, Dr. Ahmed Munirus Saleheen, Secretary of the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment - Bangladesh, said, "Migrant workers remain particularly vulnerable to exploitation, which often starts at recruitment. Cooperation among different stakeholders at both sending and receiving ends is required to ensure ethical recruitment practices in migration."
Speaking at the TAWG inaugural session, Abdusattor Esoev, the IOM Bangladesh's chief of mission, remarked, "We now have global tools and initiatives that will help us to foster ethical recruitment. All parties should join hands for the wellbeing of migrants."
The number of international migrants has globally grown from 84 million in 1970 to 281 million in 2020, representing 3.6 per cent of the world's population, according to the World Migration Report 2022.

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