A/70/310
74. A complex network of actors is involved in the current system of
recruitment for low-wage migrant workers, including: many different
components of the State architecture in countries of origin and destination,
recruiters themselves, subcontractors of recruiters, employers, direct
contractors of employers that use migrant workers, parent companies and
other business entities further up the supply chain, domestic households, trade
unions, business associations, civil society organizations, workers themselves,
friends and families of migrants, and regional and international organizations.
The complexity of the network of all those involved, and the opaque and
underground way in which unethical recruitment takes place, makes it difficult
to fully understand the system and to develop clear accountability for the rights
of migrants.
75. While wholesale transition to an ethical system is undoubtedly
challenging, it is not beyond the moral agency of Governments to facilitate such
a change. Businesses do not operate in a vacuum that is outside the control of
sovereign Governments. Governments set the regulatory and legal environment
in which private entities can undertake their activities. Voluntary private
compliance is not enough to protect the rights of migrants and sustained
political will is needed to ensure that Governments use their legislative,
policymaking, investigative and judicial powers to protect the rights of
individuals regardless of nationality.
76. Based upon an enlightened conceptualization of economic growth and of
efficient labour markets, and of their normative framework and human rights
and labour law commitments, States must individually and collectively utilize
their capacities to shift the bottom line and progressively nurture an exclusively
ethical system of recruitment for global labour migration.
A.
Recommendations to Governments
Overall migration policies and recognition of the push factors
• Develop whole-system, human-rights-based frameworks for overall
migration and border management that take into account the rights and
needs of migrant workers, and the benefits of organized mobility, and
incentivize regular, open and facilitated labour migration
• Recognize the push factors related to precarious labour migration and,
within the context of the post-2015 sustainable development goals agenda
and other international and national policy initiatives, promote decent
work opportunities for people at home. Decent work will empower people
to make informed decisions about whether to seek work overseas and deal
with recruitment processes from a position of choice
• In further recognition of migration push factors, invest in sufficient social
protection systems in countries of origin to ensure that poverty, and/or
economic or environmental shocks do not force people into precarious
labour migration
18/26
15-13569