OUR MANIFESTO ON BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES FOR MIGRANTS AND FAMILIES BY PROMOTING SAFE, FAIR, AND ETHICAL RECRUITMENT (2021)

The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the landscape of the recruitment of migrant workers globally. Hundreds and thousands of repatriated and displaced migrants alongside first time migrants become most vulnerable to illegal recruitment and trafficking as they desperately search for jobs abroad. This is further exacerbated by the new quarantine and health protocols in different countries, along with other restrictions brought about by the pandemic crisis, which are taken advantage of by illegal recruiters.

Thus, as a part of building back better post COVID-19 pandemic, a pro-active advocacy for safe, fair and ethical recruitment becomes an urgent agenda. On August 26-27, 2021 the Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA) and Migrant Forum Asia (MFA) convened an online national consultation on building resilient communties by promoting safe, fair and ethical recruitment, where a manifesto was produced to affirm participants’ and relevant stakeholders’ commitment to this advocacy.