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
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 |
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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 ***
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 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>] |
