Protecting Overseas Workers: Research Findings and Strategic Perspectives on Labor Protections for Foreign Contract Workers in Asia and the Middle East.

Verité’s new research report finds a pattern of worker exploitation among migrant contract workers in Asia and the Middle East. Based on interviews with 600 foreign contract workers from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, the report suggests that illegal and exploitative fees can take as much as one-third of the wages that workers expect to make over the life of their contracts. Unexpected in-country charges like ‘runaway insurance’ further constrain workers’ ability to escape poverty.

These financial pressures, combined with strict legal limits on workers’ freedom of movement (including the lack of freedom to change jobs), and restrictions on their ability to organize, mean that workers often have no choice but to work excessive hours under degrading and often dangerous conditions. In addition to in-depth information on the problems faced by
foreign contract workers, Verité’s report offers concrete recommendations to governments, multinational companies, NGOs and others on how to address the exploitation of these workers.