Considering the potential of the media to play a significant role in addressing the culture of exploitation in recruitment of low-skilled migrant workers, the ILO Global Action to Improve the Recruitment Framework of Labour Migration (REFRAME) project convened a roundtable consultation with key media actors in Pakistan to explore effective solutions. The objective of the consultation was to map out a plan for media engagement towards high quality reporting on recruitment of migrant workers from Pakistan, with the ultimate aim of achieving fair recruitment of low-skilled migrant workers.

The ILO convened a core group of media actors, and provided an overview of challenges for fair recruitment of migrant workers. The consultation was attended by 21 participants from public and private media, print and electronic media, academia, workers’ organizations and civil society.

Participants were encouraged to deliberate on how to effectively mobilize the media in Pakistan to address unfair recruitment of low-skilled migrant workers through among others means, changing the mind-set of prospective migrant workers. The participants were introduced to relevant resources including the ‘Reporting on forced labour and fair recruitment: An ILO toolkit for journalists’ (forthcoming), the ILO Global Media Competition on Labour Migration, and available training tools and resources.