The risks to migrant workers using informal and unregulated labour migration channels are well documented: forced labour, including labour trafficking; debt bondage primarily due to high recruitment fees; child labour; excessive work hours; underpayment and withholding of wages; denial of social benefits; and unchecked health and safety hazards are all among the risks migrant workers face.
Regulation and explicit, enforced protections are widely recognized as critical to mitigating such abuses. Reforms have been urged by industry and NGO initiatives, and government actors have taken steps to make the formal, so-called Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) channel, more responsive, efficient, and effective.
Yet despite these well-documented risks and efforts to curtail recruitment abuses, informal recruitment channels continue to thrive; a remarkably high number of workers are still using informal means to enter and work in Thailand.
The focus of this paper is to explain why this is occurring.
This paper describes various fraudulent visas used by criminals operating in the U.S. sex market. Studies show that many foreign women exploited through commercial sex rely on visa brokers to enter the U.S. However, scholars have not investigated va...Read More
In-depth research carried out by Verité has found that Latin American countries export staggering amounts of illegally mined gold, which is tied to human trafficking, as well as legal and reputational risk for major companies with gold in their su...Read More
Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC) is a rising form of child abuse in the Philippines with significant social, health and wellbeing consequences for survivors. In response, this scoping review was undertaken to advance understanding of th...Read More
This briefing paper has been compiled using information included in the Out of the Shadows Index and the ECPAT Country Overview for Nepal. The brief describes Nepal's score on the Out of the Shadows Index, which measured the countryâ€...Read More
2025 © Copyright, RESPECT International. All Rights Reserved. Website Disclaimer | Privacy Policy
