IHRB's Migrant Workers Programme Manager Neill Wilkins is in Berlin this week taking part in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) workshop on the prevention of trafficking in human beings, hosted by the Government of Germany.

The workshop will be looking at the importance of preventing trafficking within public procurement processes. The workshop is a precursor to a wider conference later this week where over 180 representatives of government, international organisations, business and wider civil society will discuss the same  issue. IHRB's Chief Executive John Morrison will help lead part of the conference discussion.

Both John and Neill will be promoting IHRB's key messages about the importance of responsible recruitment in preventing forced labour and trafficking and advocating for the Employer Pays Principle - no worker should pay for a job- the costs of recruitment should be borne not by the worker but by the employer. They will also help raise the important role that public procurement can play in promoting awareness of  trafficking and forced labour and its prevention as identified in IHRB's analysis of the 2015 EU Public Procurement Directives.  

Photo: Yasmin Fahimi, State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, speaking at a two-day high-level conference focusing on the prevention of human trafficking for labour exploitation in supply chains, Berlin, 7 September 2016. 

Credit: OSCE