Articles & Publications
Talks/ Podcasts
Migrant Workers Rights (Southeast Asia) with guest Andy Hall (Nepal)
Workers Rock Podcast (Nepal)
23rd March 2024
Click below to listen to the full podcast
Why Human Rights Matter to Business?
Risky Business with Darian McBain: Asia
15th January 2024
Asian business is changing. Customer demands, government regulations, and stakeholder expectations are all evolving under the pressure of the environmental crisis. And even the most robust business models are starting to show cracks. But it’s through those cracks that opportunities arrive. Do you know how to navigate this new normal? Andy Hall is a human rights defender, a researcher/investigator and activist, and an independent specialist on migrant worker rights. In this episode of Risky Business, Andy talks about how he uncovered – and helped to tackle – the problem of labour rights abuses in Malaysia’s latex glove industry.
Click HERE to listen
Migrant Workers – The Human Cost – Scotland Against Modern Slavery
January 30, 2023
“Andy Hall is an activist based in Nepal who has campaigned for migrant workers’ rights across the world, especially in the source countries that supply workers to the Seasonal Worker and Skilled Worker migration schemes.”
“Debt bondage, unscrupulous recruitment agents, and complex employment supply chains can leave workers vulnerable and desperate and are far more common than most people think. Andy talks about the issues that these populations face and some of the areas to pay extra attention to.”
Andy Hall and Katherine Chon talk about forced labor in the global healthcare supply chain
August 31, 2022
In recognition of Labor Day, Katherine Chon, Director of the Office on Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Andy Hall, a Migrant Worker Rights Specialist, spoke about forced labor in Malaysia’s rubber glove industry. They discuss the links between the abuses migrant workers suffer and the global supply chain. Andy shares his experience building capacity to advocate successfully on the ground and challenges to advancing change. He addresses the risks companies take on when they do not address or lack awareness of forced labor in healthcare supply chains. The conversation concludes with Andy’s thoughts on developing resilient supply chains and sustainable buying practices to ensure the respect of worker’s rights, even in times of pandemics.
Click HERE to listen
Beyond Advocacy to Advance Migrants’ Rights: A Conversation with Andy Hall
22nd February 2022
In this informal conversation on 9 February 2022, migration specialist Andy Hall elaborated on various types of strategies that can be employed to advance migrants’ rights based on his experience. Now living in Nepal, Andy is now traveling through Thailand, where he is well known due to a now-dismissed court case for criminal defamation and computer crimes concerning his role in researching a report on migrant conditions in Thailand’s food export industry in 2016.
In particular, the talk highlighted work with global agencies focusing on forced labor and custom law enforcement agencies (like the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to impose trade enforcement sanctions on companies that exploit and mistreat migrants.
In more recent years, and somewhat controversially, Hall has also taken to engage and work for investors and companies as advisor and consultant. Among others, in Thailand he is now Consultant/Migration Advisor at Charoen Pokphand Group – C.P. Group. This in the believe that while activists can apply pressure on companies to change corporate conduct to be better to migrants (as also can buyers, brands and enforcement officials). It’s the employers/companies themselves and their investors that need to change.
How he juggles between confrontational roles and working from within the system is challenging and raises important ethical issues that was also addressed in the conversation and in the Q&A section.
My Key Publications
November 2023
- 5th Nov 2023: Information on Migrant Worker Responsible Recruitment Schemes and Certification Programmes – Where are We At Nowadays? Any Progress? (Updated 16th January 2024)
February 2023
- Buiness and Human Rights Resource Centre – UK Seasonal Worker scheme endangers vulnerable foreign workers.
- FMT: Letter to the editor – Time to address corruption in migrant worker management.
November 2022
- Is there any hope left for ethical recruitment certification schemes such as IOM IRIS?
- 5 key issues (root causes) that companies/brands/MSIs participating in yet another Global Forum on Responsible Recruitment #GFRR2022 need to consider to understand properly why ethical recruitment is not becoming a workable reality on the ground.
- 5 key yet simple questions to ask those companies/brands/MSIs participating in yet another Global Forum on Responsible Recruitment #GFRR2022.
January 2022
April 2020
- Don’t forget the people behind the PPE – migrant workers meeting the surge in demand for medical gloves.
- Thailand’s migrant workers at risk during pandemic.
October 2019
July 2019
April 2018
- The Role of the Trade Union Movement in the Global Forum on Migration and Development and the Global Compact on Migration: Migration research for lobbying and campaigning (published by FNV Mondiaal).
2012 – 2016
- Columnist Bangkok Post see opinion pieces – HERE
- Hall, A (2012) Migrant Workers and Social Protection in ASEAN: Moving towards regional standards.
- Hall, A. (2012) Submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination – Thailand’s Adherence to Obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD): Migrant Worker Policies and Practice.
- Hall, A. (2012) Experiences of Myanmar Migrant Workers in Thailand with the MoU Import Process (IPSR, Nakhon Pathom).
- Hall, A. (2012) Myanmar and Migrant Workers: Briefing and Recommendations (IPSR, Nakhon Pathom).
2011
- Hall, A. (2011) ‘Migration and Thailand: Policy, Perspectives and Challenges’ in Huguet, J. and Chamratrithirong, A. (Eds.) Migration for Development in Thailand: Overview and Tools for Policymakers (IOM, Bangkok)
- Archavanitkul, K. and Hall, A. (2011) ‘Migration Workers and Human Rights in a Thai Context’ in Huguet, J. and Chamratrithirong, A. (Eds.) (IOM, Bangkok) Migration for Development in Thailand: Overview and Tools for Policymakers (IOM, Bangkok).
- Hall, A. (2011) Migrant Workers, Social Protection and ASEAN (FES/MFA, Manila).
- Hall, A. (Ed.) (2011) Snap Shot Stories from Invisible Trafficking Victims: 10 Case Studies for the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons (IPSR, Nakhon Pathom).
- Hall, A. (2011) Thailand and Irregular Migration Policy (submission to the UN Migrant Rights Committee Day of Discussion on Irregular Migration, Geneva, 19th Sept).
- Hall, A. (2011) Global Financial Institutions: Thai Policy and Practice (ALNI, Bangkok).
- Hall, A. (2011) ‘Migrant Workers’ Rights to Social Protection in ASEAN – Case Studies of Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
- Hall, A. (2011) ‘Low Skilled Migration and Thailand: Prospects for 2011’ in Hall, A. (eds.) Mahidol Migrant Center Newsletter Edition 2, 1st July.
- Hall, A. (2011) ‘Thailand’s Low Skilled Migration Policy: Progress and Challenges’ in Hall, A. (eds.) Mahidol Migrant Center Newsletter Special Edition, 19th September.
- Hall, A. (2011) ‘Migration Management in Thailand Reaches a Crossroads’ Nation, 4th May.
2010
- Hall, A. (2010) ‘Positive U-Turn but Still No Long Term Solutions’ Bangkok Post, 22nd Apr 2010
- Hall, A. (2010) ‘Golden Chance to Boost Migration Policies’ Bangkok Post, 17th Dec 2010.
- Hall, A., (2010) ‘Guilt Lies with Thais, Not Migrant Workers’ Bangkok Post, 4th Oct 2010.Hall, A. (2010) ‘Life is no easier for legal Burmese migrants’ Nation, 10th Sept 2010.
- Hall, A. (2010) ‘Lost Faces in Another Migration Debate’ Bangkok Post, 17th Feb 2010.
- Hall, A. (2010) ‘Managing Migration in 2010: Effective Registration or Effective Deportation’ Nation, 11th January 2010.
2009
2005
2004
- Haines, F and Hall, A. (2004) ‘The Law and Order Debate in Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)’ Journal of Occupational Health and Safety – Australia and New Zealand 19: 263 (Australia).
- Hall, A., Johnstone, R. and Ridgway, A. (2004) Reflection On OHS Reforms: Developing Criminal Accountability For Industrial Deaths, Australian National Research Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, Australian National University, Working Paper 33 (Australia).
- McMahon, G., Hall, A., Hayward, G., Hudson, C., and Roberts, C. (2004) Basic Skills Programmes in the Probation Service: An Evaluation of the Basic Skills Pathfinder, United Kingdom Home Office Online Report 14/04 (UK).
Other articles to read:
