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Through generous funding by the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), Verité is continuing to support workers navigating risks in new labor markets between Uttar Pradesh, India and the Gulf States. This project focuses on building capacities of partners to provide guidance to workers during the recruitment process in Uttar Pradesh, and to safely navigate systems for addressing any exploitation they may encounter during employment in the Gulf.
The most significant contributor to the ongoing presence of debt bondage or forced labor in global supply chains is the burden of recruitment fees and expenses on migrant workers. Many employers and recruiters in high risk global supply chains build business models on charging unskilled and low-skilled workers fees for employment. Specifically, employers pay no or insufficient professional service fees to the recruitment agents they engage to find them workers. Rather, they knowingly allow agents to recoup revenue and the significant legitimate expenses associated with international labor migration—such as government approvals and travel costs—from the workers themselves.