Recruitment in the Asia-Middle East Labor Migration Corridor

The Middle East represents one of the most sought-after and competitive labor markets in the world, with an estimated 10 million contract workers in the Gulf states alone — 70 percent of whom are Asian.

The vast majority of this temporary labor movement is brokered by recruitment agencies; and with the supply of labor overwhelmingly outweighing demand, oversight of recruitment practices is extremely difficult. Migrant workers are willing to pay a stiff premium to work in the Middle East, even in the face of onerous placement fees and less-than-ideal work and living conditions once at destination.

In Regulating Private Recruitment in the Asia Middle East Labour Migration Corridor, author Dovelyn Rannveig Agunias examines how sometimes unscrupulous recruitment agencies take advantage of the migrants they purport to serve, by charging excessive placement fees and offering expensive predeparture loans.

The issue brief, the fourth in a series launched by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and the International Organization for Migration's Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, discusses the policy options that could be implemented to curb abuses by increasing government intervention in recruitment operations.