Valuing moral migration

A Nepal-based ethical migrant worker recruiter has created waves internationally to be only the second company worldwide to be certified recently under the International Recruitment Integrity System (IRIS).

International Manpower Recruitment (IMR) was recognized for its high ethical recruitment standards.  This comes as Nepal reels from news involving the misuse of visit visas by immigration officials, recruitment related corruption, bans, and vested interest groups which have overshadowed the role of migration as a powerful development tool. 

IRIS is an initiative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to promote ethical recruitment of migrant workers. It is a bit like fair trade certifications for consumer products like coffee, tea or chocolate that assure conscious consumers that they are not complicit in labor abuses, even if it means having to pay a premium. Certifications like IRIS give responsible companies wanting to ethically hire Nepali workers more confidence that workers will not be cheated.

It is remarkable that a Nepali recruiter has been recognised as a global pioneer in obtaining this certification after a rigorous audit process. Only one other recruiter in Singapore has received this global certification so far, and a Kenyan company got it after Nepal’s IMR.

All this is happening when the international labour market is not yet ready for ethical recruitment. Many employers still do not pay for the costs and fees that workers incur, unhealthy competition among recruiters persists, and individual brokers prey on workers.  Complying with ethical practices therefore are not always generous, and can even threaten business sustainability of companies.

IMR in Nepal has been one of the biggest recruiters in some years despite being ethical, but there have also been periods when the numbers have gone down to zero. The company was just recovering from Covid-19 impact when I first covered its work in this column in 2021 titled ‘A Few Good Agents’. Just before the lockdowns IMR had lost business because Nepal banned the emigration of Nepalis to Malaysia, its primary destination market. Now, Malaysia has again stopped the intake of foreign workers.

IMR has faced three big episodes of business downturn after it decided to become fully ethical in 2018. During such times when they sent very few workers—59 in 2019, 166 in 2020, and 75 in 2025 so far—traditional recruitment in which workers pay fees is always convenient and a profitable fall back option. There are many hiring companies looking for Nepali workers, but do not abide by the ‘employer pays’ principle. And many workers are desperate to migrate overseas even if it means by paying unjustifiably high recruitment fees. 

But ethical recruiters cannot fold to the pressures of business downturns, no matter how easy or tempting. To stay undeterred, what is required is commitment to ethical standards. The IRIS certification to Nepal’s IMR is a reward for precisely that: commitment.

But how will this well-vetted stamp translate to jobs for Nepali workers? In theory, we can be hopeful that certifications like IRIS can help responsible hiring companies separate the wheat from the chaff since the industry is full of unethical players globally. 

It also may not always be practically feasible for employers to conduct their own due diligence as it can be time consuming, costly, and they may not be familiar with the Nepal market. The cost of not doing proper due diligence can also be damning for the reputation conscious brands. 

Exports from several Malaysian manufacturing companies, for example, were banned after forced labour allegations. UK scheme operators faced sector wide reputation damage, while also losing licenses. All this when there are reliable companies which could have conducted the same recruitment drives in a responsible manner, and there are desperate jobseekers who would excel at those jobs. 

With standards like IRIS, identifying the ‘few good agents’, will be easier. There is also hope that the business downturns for ethical actors will not come in such frequencies and last so long by making diversification to new markets and sectors easier. Now with certifications like IRIS, good recruiters can distinguish themselves with more authority. 

Diversification is often difficult as good actors in the space do not have the reach, network or other means to demonstrate that they are indeed a different breed. International certifications like IRIS bring more visibility to the end of the labour supply chain actors. The workers also need to understand what such certifications mean. All overseas opportunities in Nepal are advertised as ‘free visa free ticket’ to abide by the law and misused to an extent that no one takes it seriously. 

Certifications like IRIS and other ethical accreditations would help migrants identify reliable recruiters, rather than just relying on familiar but fraudulent individual brokers who they trust more.

The value of this stamp of approval cannot be underestimated. After exposes of malpractice, the Nepali recruitment industry in the past has been tarred with the same brush, for example employers have pulled out from the UK seasonal visa recruitment. 

This is not a positive outcome for job seekers deprived of good recruitment opportunities. With certifications like IRIS, journalists, activists and others can also be more constructive in their exposés by putting the spotlight on ‘alternate’, well-vetted players and good practices. 

If these expectations from international certifications can translate to practice and ethical recruiters like IMR see their businesses expand, it will have a positive spillover effect across the industry. A strong business case for ethical recruitment standards will inspire more actors to forego ridiculously high profits from the traditional worker-paid model and transition from traditional to hybrid methods, then from hybrid to ethical models.

Already, there are a handful of professional recruiters in Nepal who are committed to ethical recruitment and have received other international certifications. A critical mass of ethical actors in the space would raise the standards of the Nepali recruitment industry as a whole. Recruiters serve an important purpose which is often easy to overlook amidst all the malpractices by linking workers from the remotest parts of Nepal to rewarding, jobs abroad.

The positive spillover also goes beyond the recruitment industry to achieve larger development goals. For example, Migration Lab has partnered with IMR in two projects to send workers from marginalised communities including Musahar youth and Jajarkot earthquake victims to Malaysia at zero cost. 

These were piloted to making migration accessible to those in the periphery, which it is not. Migration is a powerful tool and using it strategically for good is possible, provided recruitment drives are free from the usual malpractice and abuse.

We are still a long way from the practice where hiring companies and workers will actively seek out recruiters who are well vetted with internationally recognised certifications. But the fact that a Nepali recruiter has achieved a demanding international certification, and is the second in the world to do so, is promising. 

Upasana Khadka heads Migration Lab, a social enterprise aimed at making migration outcomes better for workers and their families. Labour Mobility is a regular column in Nepali Times.