The United Nations, through its International Organization for Migration (IOM) and thanks to the help of Blockchain Company Diginex, has launched a blockchain resource that can avoid the exploitation of migrant workers in Hong Kong.

The information was provided via a press release. The useful resource will help approximately 1,500 migrant domestic worker recruitment organizations in Hong Kong, as well as some associated institutions in nations that send people to work there.

The name of the innovative system is the International Recruitment Integrity System Self-Assessment for Ethical Recruitment (IRIS-SAFER). The blockchain technology is being put to good use and will help the developers to make sure the data records are safe as the name indicates, and also immutable.

Enhancing Transparency Thanks to Blockchain

Hence, blockchain technology will bring enhanced integrity and transparency to the process. The announcement outlined that nearly 400,000 migrant workers make their lives in Hong Kong, a prominent commercial and industrial hub in Asia.

Of that total, a whopping 98 percent are women, and more than half of them, 56 percent, were charged a recruitment fee by agencies, which isn’t allowed by the local regulations.

According to IOM China chief of mission Giuseppe Crocetti, “through use of IRIS-SAFER, agencies will first learn what are global ethical recruitment standards, then be able to demonstrate their progress and, ultimately, prove their commitment. With this project, we are drawing from IOM’s global work, through the IRIS initiative, and tailoring it to the specific experience of recruiting migrant domestic workers to Hong Kong.”

The system has been so successful in Hong Kong and other nations that were not specified, the developers plan to implement it on a global scale. It would be an extremely helpful resource to stop abuses in the workplace, not just exploitations perpetrated against migrants.

An “Impactful Project”

Mr. Mark Blick, the Head of Government Solutions at Diginex, was delighted to announce the partnership with IOM on this “impactful project. Using the UN’s IRIS standards as the benchmark for reputable agencies, we are confident that the tool can help to strike out these unethical practices. In Hong Kong, foreign domestic workers are some of the most economically vulnerable people in our society and pay approximately HK$700,000,000 each year in placement/recruitment fees. Being headquartered in Hong Kong, we believe it is vital to support the communities in which we operate, so this partnership and project are close to our hearts.”

Just recently, Diginex became a Nasdaq publicly traded firm following a reverse merger with 8i. The company also became a founding member of Global Digital Finance.

The United Nations have been involved in blockchain-related projects before, so they aren’t precisely novices in the area. The UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) will, according to recent reports, establish a partnership with doc.com, which is a blockchain-based telemedicine and telepsychology enterprise to expand healthcare services and goods in Eastern Africa countries in need.

By Andrés Chavez

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