Anti-Corruption Policy
ILSI prohibits bribery and facilitation payments across every corridor and requires all staff and partners to report solicitation attempts.
Labour migration corridors are, unfortunately, a known target for corruption — from officials who solicit unofficial payments to process documents, to recruitment agents who inflate fees and split the proceeds with intermediaries. ILSI's anti-corruption policy is designed to keep the institution, and the workers it serves, out of that system.
What the policy requires
- A strict prohibition on bribery, kickbacks and facilitation payments by any ILSI director, employee or corridor partner, anywhere in the world.
- Due diligence checks on recruitment agents and employers before they are recommended or accredited — see employer due diligence.
- A mandatory duty for staff to report any solicitation of a bribe, gift or unofficial payment connected to ILSI's work.
- Gift and hospitality limits for anyone dealing with government officials, employers or recruitment agencies on ILSI's behalf.
Members who are asked for an unofficial payment by anyone claiming to act for ILSI should treat this as a serious red flag and report it immediately through our whistleblower channel or by contacting Get Help. Workers should also check our scam alerts and use our agent verification tool before paying any recruitment fee.
Why this matters more in labour migration
Corruption in labour migration rarely announces itself as corruption. It usually appears as a small, seemingly routine "processing fee," a document that "moves faster" for a payment, or a recruiter who says a fee is normal because "everyone pays it." Because these payments are often demanded from people with little power to refuse — a worker desperate for a job, a family under financial pressure — even small-scale corruption in this sector causes disproportionate harm. ILSI's policy treats any such payment connected to its own work as a serious matter regardless of size.
Working with governments and employers on this problem
Beyond ILSI's internal policy, our policy advisory work with governments and due diligence work with employers both treat corruption risk in recruitment as a central design question — for example, how a recruitment fee cap is actually enforced on the ground, not just written into regulation. Preventing corruption in recruitment is, in this sense, as much a protection measure for workers as any legal casework ILSI undertakes.