Ethical Recruitment and Supply Chain Management

Global supply chains are complex and involve a wide range of actors, working at multiple sites, with goods and workers crossing multiple borders. Thailand is a major country of destination for migrants from the neighbouring countries, largely due to its role as a regional supply chain hub and one of the world’s largest exporters of agricultural products, seafood and electronics. Regardless of the product, brands operating in Thailand are likely to have migrant labour within their value chains.

Migrant workers in these supply chains are highly vulnerable to poor working conditions, abuse and exploitation, and sometimes human trafficking for forced labour. IOM is actively engaged in addressing these vulnerabilities and has developed comprehensive expertise to assist private sector actors in enhancing procurement policies and reinforce the "employer pays" business model.

IOM provides a suite of services for businesses to ensure ethical recruitment and clean supply chains under its Corporate Responsibility in Eliminating Slavery and Trafficking (CREST) programme.  Leveraging on its labour migration expertise, strong field presence and good relations with the Royal Thai Government’s Ministry of Labour, CREST has been designed to centre around three pillars of work to help companies maximize the benefits of migrant labour in their supply chains.

1. Training for the Commercial Sector on Trafficking and Slavery
2. Pre and/or Post Orientation Training for Labour Migrants
3. Supporting Supply Chain Mapping and ethical Recruitment

In addition, IOM supports the ethical recruitment of migrant workers through the International Recruitment Integrity System (IRIS), a voluntary multi-stakeholder certification system developed by IOM for labour recruiters. It is comprised of an international standard, certification scheme and a compliance and monitoring mechanism. For businesses and migrant workers, IRIS serves as a due diligence tool for the assessment of labour recruiters.

IRIS aims to identify and support ethical labour recruiters, and to bring transformative change to the international recruitment industry. IRIS takes a management systems approach to ensure ethical recruitment, transparency and due diligence throughout the recruitment process. IRIS works with businesses to prevent and mitigate the negative consequences of unethical recruitment, which may include exposure of workers to exploitation and human trafficking, loss of business, reputational damage and legal liabilities. For more information, visit the IRIS webpage.