In 2017, Verité looks forward to continuing work on the project, Promoting Safe and Fair Migration from Kenya to the Gulf States, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Kenya and HAART, an NGO dedicated to ending human trafficking in Kenya.
From Verité’s earliest days, we have been committed to working with partner organizations in the regions in which we work. While meeting face-to-face with our partners in Nairobi last month, we solidified our collaborative approach to build a project that brings together stakeholders from all stages of the labor migration corridor between Kenya and the Gulf states.
In recent years, there has been significant activity and attention from donors and activists to address labor abuses experienced by migrants from South Asia to the Gulf States. This project, funded by U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Affairs (DRL), focuses on a new horizon of labor migration: increasing flows of migrants recruited from eastern Africa to work in the Gulf states. Workers migrating from East Africa for domestic work, hotel service, and construction face risks, often through the labor recruitment process, including human trafficking, contract substitution, and debt bondage.
Our innovative approach to this project includes:
- Reinforcing ethical recruitment as good business:
- IOM Kenya is working with private labor recruitment agencies to build commitment among industry leaders to adopt ethical labor recruitment practices
- Verité is engaging employers in the Gulf to raise their awareness about ethical recruitment, build capacity to better protect migrants, and encourage stronger market demand for ethical recruitment services
- IOM Kenya is engaging government actors in Kenya to more effectively engage, monitor and regulate recruiters to protect migrant workers and promote ethical recruitment
- Reaching out to migrant sending communities in Kenya:
- HAART is engaging with communities sending migrants to the Gulf aimed at gaining a better understanding of the migrant populations (who is migrating and why, what conditions are they experiencing) and to raise awareness among prospective migrants about potential risks in labor migration to the Gulf and ways to protect themselves against these risks
- IOM Kenya is supporting the development of pre-departure training for prospective migrants to help them better protect themselves against risks and abuse
Verité is connecting partners from this project with bilateral and global civil society efforts to promote safe and fair migration globally. Read next month’s Vision for more on these activities and visit HAART’s blog dedicated to stories from survivors and victims of human trafficking from Kenya.