16th July, Paris – A new industry platform designed to help consumer goods companies address worker-paid recruitment fees across global supply chains has launched today. The interactive platform, called the Ethical Recruitment Atlas, provides organisations with an unprecedented source of data to better understand unethical recruitment practices and see the scale of potential repayments required to migrant workers.

Worker-paid recruitment fees are the costs that migrant workers pay to obtain employment, including recruitment agency fees and related expenses such as visas, medical checks, travel and work permits. Historically, these fees have been a “black box,” allowing exploitative fees to remain hidden. With recruitment fees and related costs sometimes amounting to as much as 14.6 months’ wages, these vast costs can leave workers heavily indebted before they start work, increasing the risk of exploitation and debt bondage.

To fix the recruitment fee challenge we first need to be able to measure the scale of the problem through reliable, verified data. Developed by Impactt and funded by the Consumer Goods Forum and its members, the Ethical Recruitment Atlas is the first freely accessible platform to bring together large-scale data on recruitment fees and related costs paid by migrant workers.

The Atlas is a living, growing platform. The platform is built on data gathered from 17 contributing organisations, including CGF’s members Unilever and Woolworths, as well as more than 17,000 interviews with migrant workers across 250+ companies and over 40 publicly available sources. It already covers 193 migration routes globally, spanning sectors including manufacturing, agriculture, hospitality and construction. At launch, 6,783 individual worker testimonies will be available publicly, with more being continuously processed from the existing data stockpile collected, as well as new incoming large-scale datasets. 

Combining information from both public and private sources in one place, the Atlas gives companies, non-profit organisations, policymakers, social auditors and other stakeholders a clearer picture of where worker-paid recruitment fees are most common and the average amount. Users can explore data by workers’ country of origin, destination country, and industry, helping them to identify higher-risk recruitment routes and make better-informed decisions about their supply chains.

Didier Bergeret, Director of Sustainability at the CGF, said:

“The Ethical Recruitment Atlas gives companies access to the kind of practical data that has been missing from the efforts to tackle worker-paid recruitment fees. For too long, businesses have had limited information to help them understand the scale of recruitment fees paid by migrant workers and to determine appropriate remediation when issues are identified. By bringing this data together in one freely accessible platform, the Atlas will help companies make more informed decisions, strengthen responsible recruitment practices and ultimately support better outcomes for workers.”

The launch of the Atlas marks an important step in improving transparency around recruitment practices. Until now, reliable information on recruitment fees has been difficult to access. Workers are often unable to provide documentary evidence of the fees they have paid, while recruiters may deliberately avoid creating a paper trail. This has made it harder for companies to understand the scale of the issue and provide effective remediation for affected workers.

Patrick Shaw Brown, Chief Executive Officer, Impactt said:

“At Impactt, our goal has always been to turn insight into action. The Ethical Recruitment Atlas is more than a data platform, it is a practical tool that helps companies better understand recruitment risks, make more informed decisions and strengthen responsible recruitment practices. By bringing together evidence from thousands of migrant workers, the Atlas provides organisations with the insights they need to identify risks, target action and improve recruitment systems.

This is only the beginning. As more companies and partners contribute data and support the Atlas, it will become an increasingly valuable shared resource, driving greater transparency, better risk management and faster progress towards responsible recruitment globally.’’

The Ethical Recruitment Atlas forms part of the CGF’s Human Rights Coalition’s wider Ethical Recruitment Marketplace initiative, which brings together businesses and partners to advance responsible recruitment practices and support the Employer Pays Principle.