Part VII of Kenya’s Labour Institutions Act of 2007 has provisions to regulate the activities of private employment agencies that engage in internal and cross-border recruitment. These include registration requirements, obligations on agency directors, competency requirements for employment officers, recruitment-related offences and appeals procedures.
Private intermediaries are prohibited by law from requiring fees from migrant workers. The U.S. Department of Labor prohibits employers from accepting or requesting money from migrants for recruitment costs (H-2A: 20 C.F.R. § 655.135(j). H-2B: 20 C.F.R. 503.16(o)), and also requires employers to contractually forbid their labor recruiters from seeking or accepting payments from prospective employees (20 C.F.R. § 655.135(k)).
Malaysia and Indonesia signed an MOU on the Recruitment and Placement of Indonesian Domestic Workers on 15 May 2006, amended by a Protocol on 30 May 2011, which provides protections for domestic workers.
The Government of Spain's Royal Decree 1620/20111 of 14 November regulates the special relationship that characterizes service within the family household.
The Royal Decree updates the rules governing the labour relationships of domestic employees and sets out to improve working conditions in the sector by bringing them as far as possible into line with those of other workers, while making due allowance where appropriate for such differences as may exist.
Although domestic workers are explicitly excluded from protections under the Labour Law in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries, in June 2015 a separate law regulating the domestic work sector was adopted by Kuwait’s national assembly, providing some labour rights to this vulnerable group of workers – including a minimum wage. The lack of a credible mechanism to enforce this law remains a shortcoming however.
Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act (Live-in Caregivers and Others), 2009,163 (Bill 210) prohibits a recruiter from charging a foreign national who is employed as a live-in caregiver a fee, directly or indirectly, for any service, good or benefit provided to the foreign national. Bill 210 also prohibits an employer from directly or indirectly recovering or attempting to recover any cost incurred by the employer in the course of arranging to employ the foreign national.
As part of Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP), Canada ensures that seasonal migrant agricultural workers are paid at the level of, or above, local minimum wage and provides other guarantees.
The employer must pay a wage equal to the highest provincial minimum wage, or the rate that Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) determines to be the prevailing wage for the type of agricultural work being performed, or the rate being paid by the employer to Canadian workers performing the same type of agricultural work.
The agreements established a clearly defined recruitment process which must be followed by all parties, including by private recruitment agencies (PRAs). They specify that the Canadian employers should first inform their domestic Employment and Immigration Departments about the availability of jobs and seek permission to recruit. If the permission is granted, the Departments then relays the information to the Philippines Department of Labour and Employment which in turn alerts licensed PRAs in the Philippines to the recruitment opportunities.
New Zealand launched the Recognized Seasonal Employer (RSE) programme in 2007 to fill labour shortages in the horticulture and viticulture industries. The RSE began with an initial annual cap of 5,000 workers but that was raised to 8,000 for the 2009 season and 9,000 in 2015. Migrants are mostly recruited the Pacific island countries.
The Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) was launched in 2009 by the State Bank of Pakistan, the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and the Ministry of Finance for the purpose of (a) facilitating and supporting a faster, cheaper, convenient and more efficient flow of remittances, and (b) to create investment opportunities in Pakistan for overseas Pakistanis. The PRI has encouraged the financial sector to provide greater commitment to remittance services.