Guidelines to prevent labour trafficking now available in five languages
Guidelines to prevent abusive recruitment, exploitative employment and trafficking of migrant workers in the Baltic Sea region are now available in English as well as in Finnish, Estonian, Lithuanian and Swedish. The Guidelines address the problems and issues identified in the research component and in national meetings and include a large variety of measures to prevent and address labour exploitation and trafficking. They provide a framework that allows national stakeholders to select, develop or strengthen a number of preventative policies to address exploitation that arises in the recruitment and employment of migrant labour in the Baltic Sea region.
The guidelines focus especially on the role of private employment agencies, and of employers operating in cleaning, restaurants and agriculture. As such, the guidelines are based on international standards on trafficking in persons and on the UN Guiding Principles on businesses and human rights. They are articulated in a set of key principles and four main sections addressing the main stakeholders and calling for cooperation amongst them. The four main sections of the guidelines are:
• Guidelines for States to prevent abusive and exploitative recruitment and employment practices;
• Guidelines for businesses: Due diligence to prevent abuse and exploitation
• Guidelines for states, business, trade unions and civil society: Joining efforts to protect the rights of migrant workers;
• Multidisciplinary cooperation and coordination at international level.
Each chapter includes a number of operational guidelines and practical measures organised thematically. A commentary on the rationale of the measures proposed and the key contextual factors they address supports each guideline. In addition, examples of relevant practices have been included to foster the exchange of information and experiences, and to encourage national stakeholders to further develop their work and practices.
Furthermore, an In Brief version of the guidelines has also been produced in order to provide an easy-access version of the guidelines to different stakeholders. It includes short extracts from the original Guidelines and is now available in English, Finnish, Estonian, Lithuanian and Swedish.
It is our hope that both of these versions of the guidelines can be utilised in the work in tackling and preventing trafficking and exploitation of migrant workers in the Baltic Sea region. This work is the final outcome of the EC ISEC-funded ADSTRINGO -project, implemented by HEUNI together Lithuanian Ministry of Interior, University of Tartu in Estonia and Council of Baltic Sea States Task Force against Trafficking in Human Beings in 2012-2014.
All the different language version are available here .