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Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery

Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the hands of traffickers

Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025                                      gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Georgia.htm

Republic of Georgia

Georgia's economy sustained GDP growth of close to 10% in 2006 and 12% in 2007, based on strong inflows of foreign investment and robust government spending. However, growth slowed to less than 3% in 2008 and is expected to slow further in 2009. Georgia's main economic activities include the cultivation of agricultural products such as grapes, citrus fruits, and hazelnuts; mining of manganese and copper; and output of a small industrial sector producing alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, metals, machinery, aircraft and chemicals.  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Description: Description: Georgia

Georgia is a source and transit country for women and girls trafficked within the country and to Turkey, the UAE, Greece, Russia, Germany, and Austria for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Women and girls from Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, and other former Soviet states are trafficked through Georgia to Turkey, the UAE, and Western Europe. Men and women are trafficked within Georgia for the purpose of forced labor. Men and women in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which were outside of the government’s control, are trafficked for the purpose of forced labor. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009   Check out a later country report here or a full TIP Report here

 

CAUTION:  The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Georgia.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE

Students

If you are looking for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of particular interest to you.  Would you like to write about Forced-Labor?  Debt Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc.  On the other hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to the subject of Trafficking.  Scan other countries as well.  Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions.  Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources that are available on-line.

Teachers

Check out some of the Resources for Teachers attached to this website.

HELP for Victims

International Organization for Migration
3225 2216
Country code: 995-

 

*** FEATURED ARTICLE ***

Sad Plight of Underage Brides

Ramilya Alieva, Institute for Womens Policy Research IWPR, 2005/06/02

www.kvali.com/kvali/index.asp?obiektivi=show&n=401

[accessed 6 February 2011]

iwpr.net/global-voices/georgia-sad-plight-underage-brides-0

[accessed 29 January 2018]

I do not want to get married. I want to continue my studies and become a doctor," said Sevil Allazkyzy. Small and fragile with a childlike body, Sevil is only 11 years old, and all her grades are excellent. She is the best student in the seventh form of the school in the village of Ferma in the Kaspi District of Georgia. However, the main topic of discussion at home now is the intention to get her married this year.  She said that many of the girls in her village have had a couple of children by the time they reach 15.

Story of a Georgian Victim of Trafficking

Source: an article, published in "Kviris Palitra" Newspaper of May 7-13, 2001

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 5 September 2011]

They put me in such conditions that I could not refuse their proposal. They were sending me people who delicately and gradually enticed me to the prostitution. But I preferred to return back to Georgia rather accepting this. But they intimidated me, saying that they would offend my family and they would never find jobs if I refuse. They also told me that they'll beat my family members, or poison them and me with gas and that I simply do not have any other choice.

 

*** ARCHIVES ***

2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Georgia

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 30 March 2021

www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/georgia/

[accessed 7 June 2021]

PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR

The law prohibits all forms of forced or compulsory labor. The government’s enforcement of the laws was not always effective.

The Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labor, Health, and Social Affairs reported it found no cases of forced or compulsory labor during the year, although GTUC claimed this was because the Labor Inspectorate lacked enough inspectors to cover the country effectively.

PROHIBITION OF CHILD LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT

The government effectively enforced the law, but some child labor persisted undetected. Experts reported minors were employed in the service, construction, agriculture, and tourism sectors.

Street begging remained the most visible form of child labor, especially in Tbilisi. In 2018 UNICEF reported that children of street families and unaccompanied children moved following the agricultural and tourist seasons, including to tourist sites along the Black Sea during the summer. Such children were vulnerable to violence and did not have access to either education or medical services beyond emergency care.

Freedom House Country Report

2020 Edition

freedomhouse.org/country/georgia/freedom-world/2020

[accessed 27 April 2020]

G4. DO INDIVIDUALS ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION?

Unsafe conditions and inadequate legal protections for workers continue to contribute to a high rate of workplace deaths and injuries, notably in the country’s mines. The average number of workplace deaths each year rose from 24 in 2002–05 to 41 in 2007–17, according to Human Rights Watch, which cited weakened regulations. The number of deaths reached 59 in 2018 before slipping to 38 in 2019.

Georgia is a source, destination, and transit country for human trafficking linked to sexual exploitation and forced labor, and displaced people from Abkhazia and South Ossetia are among the populations most vulnerable to trafficking. However, according to the US State Department’s latest Trafficking in Persons Report, the government continued its enforcement efforts and improved its performance on victim identification.

2017 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2018

www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/ChildLaborReport_Book.pdf

[accessed 17 April 2019]

www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf

[accessed 27 April 2020]

Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL Worst Forms of Child Labor

[page 440]

Although estimates regarding the ethnicity and origin of children working on the street vary widely, sources report that children from Roma and Azerbaijani Kurd ethnic minorities make up a significant proportion of these children. (14) NGOs note that a lack of current data on the number and circumstances of children working on the street hinders effective targeting of social services. (14)  In 2017, the government, in cooperation with UNICEF, began a program to conduct qualitative research on street children. (11).

Government forms council in fight against human trafficking

Source: www.messenger.com.ge/issues/1181_august_25_2006/n_1181_1.htm

[accessed 15 July 2013]

The Georgian government has stepped up efforts in protecting the victims of human trafficking by setting up a coordinating council which will monitor and facilitate anti-trafficking strategy development, and provide rehabilitation and assistance to trafficking victims.

OSCE Mission Helps Georgia Develop National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking

The Advocates for Human Rights, November 11, 2004 -- Source: OSCE Mission Helps Georgia Develop National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking [www.osce.org/news/show_news.php?ut=2&id=4521], Press Release, Tbilisi, 11 November 2004

www.osce.org/georgia-closed/56936

[accessed 15 July 2013]

The OSCE Mission to Georgia is boosting the country's fight against human trafficking by helping the government develop an Action Plan, which is set for completion at a conference starting today.  Key ministry officials and heads of anti-trafficking agencies will draft an updated version of the Action Plan at the two-day event, supported by the Mission and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

The State Can Not Protect Georgians from Trafficking

Salome Jashi, Civil Georgia (Civil.ge Daily News Online), 13 Mar.2002

www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=1531

[accessed 6 February 2011]

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1875162.stm

[accessed 4 February 2019]

On March 11 a Russian citizen Vladimir Yepishin was released from Pankisi gorge being detained there since 1999. According to his words, Chechens were forcing him to work for them without any wage as a herdsman. He said he was brought to Pankisi from Chechnya, where he was trafficked in 1998. The released claims there are still several Russians suffering from exploitation by Chechens in the gorge.

Georgian victims of trafficking often say that force has been used against them. Quite often they were threatened with death too. Therefore it becomes clear why it is so hard to escape slavery and exploitation in hands of the traffickers. One young girl, victim of the trafficking says that she was involved in trafficking under the threats and intimidation.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 3 October 2003

www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/georgia2003.html

[accessed 6 February 2011]

[62] The Committee notes that the human rights treaty bodies which considered the reports of Georgia have consistently expressed concern at the practice of trafficking in persons, in particular women, and at the lack of protection of women, including young children, from, inter alia, sexual exploitation and trafficking.

The Protection Project - Georgia [DOC]

The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University

www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/georgia.doc

[Last accessed 2009]

FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - In 2001, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) interviewed 121 Georgian victims of trafficking, mostly women, who had been sent abroad and forced into prostitution, domestic servitude, agricultural work, or construction work. Of these trafficking victims, 60 percent were under 30 years old. Seventy-four percent received false information on jobs abroad through a tourism firm or employment agency, and 93.5 percent indicated that they had no idea that they would or could be subject to sexual exploitation. Ninety-six percent of trafficked migrants indicated that their recruiter had lied about the nature of the job they would do abroad, and that the reality was much worse than what they had been promised. Women were promised jobs as au pairs, fashion models, designers, bar and restaurant workers, and shop assistants. Almost half of the respondents interviewed for the survey were forced to work in nightclubs, in strip bars, or in prostitution. The United States and Turkey were the two primary destinations for forced prostitution, followed by the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Cyprus, and Switzerland (in that order). Women trafficked to Greece, the United States, France, Turkey, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom were also lured with promises of good jobs as housekeepers and nannies, but instead they found themselves forced into domestic servitude.

*** EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE ***

Freedom House Country Report

2018 Edition

freedomhouse.org/country/georgia/freedom-world/2018

[accessed 27 April 2020]

G4. DO INDIVIDUALS ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION?

Georgia is a source, destination, and transit country for human trafficking linked to sexual exploitation and forced labor. However, according to the U.S. State Department’s 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report, the government has made improvements in combatting trafficking, notably by improving mechanisms for identifying victims and by providing identification documents to vulnerable children at no charge.

Human Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006

2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61649.htm

[accessed 9 February 2020]

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – In January the new ATIM arrested Georgian members of an international trafficking operation, involving Georgia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan, which had actively recruited impoverished women. Women were sent to Azerbaijan where they were confined, injected with drugs, and sexually abused before being trafficked back through Georgia to Turkey for forced prostitution. Victims were eventually returned to Tbilisi after their Turkish tourist visas expired. The local leader of the operation was incarcerated pending prosecution, and the case continued at year's end.

Traffickers were largely freelance domestic operators with connections abroad, as well as some small international operations.

Traffickers often used offers of employment from friends and families to lure potential victims. Overseas jobs offered through tourism firms or employment agencies were also methods, but during the year it did not appear that employment agencies were aware that they were fronting for traffickers.

The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2005

www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/georgia.htm

[accessed 6 February 2011]

Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL Worst Forms of Child Labor

INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Trafficking of children occurs, and thousands of children living in the streets and in orphanages are vulnerable to trafficking.

CURRENT GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PROGRAMS TO ELIMINATE THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR - The Anti-TIP Unit of the Illegal Detention and Trafficking Division of the Organized Crime in the Ministry of Interior acquired a new office in 2004.  The anti-TIP unit is allocated sufficient resources for its operations and has successfully investigated and made arrests in several trafficking cases.  The Government provides protection and assistance to victims discovered in the course of police raids or investigations by referring the victims to government agencies and NGOs.  The Government of Georgia is a member of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and cooperates with other members to combat organized crime, including criminal activities concerning trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation of women and children.

All material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.  PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.  Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - Georgia", http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Georgia.htm, [accessed <date>]