Human Trafficking in [Kazakhstan Street Children in [Kazakhstan] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Kazakhstan] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Kazakhstan [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] Kazakhstan is a source, transit, and destination country for
men, women, and girls trafficked from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and
Ukraine to Kazakhstan and on to Russia and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation
and forced labor in the construction and agricultural industries. Kazakhstani men and women are trafficked internally and
to the U.A.E., Azerbaijan, Turkey, Israel, Greece,
Russia, and Germany and the United States for purposes of forced labor and
sexual exploitation. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2008 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been culled from the web to
illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Kazak Women Sold as Sex Slaves When teenagers Lyuda
and Sveta were offered work in Turkey, the promised
salary of 400-450 US dollars per month was beyond their wildest dreams. Little did they know of the horror that
awaited them in ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Reports also indicate a rise in the number of children engaged in
commercial sexual exploitation, pornography and drug trafficking in urban
areas. Children working as domestic servants are often invisible and,
for this reason, also vulnerable to exploitation. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS –
Traffickers targeted young women in their teens and 20s for sexual
exploitation. According to NGOs, most women were recruited with promises of
good jobs or marriage abroad. Travel, employment, and marriage agencies often
recruited victims through advertisements promising lucrative jobs abroad.
Offers to participate in international beauty contests also were used.
Previously trafficked women reportedly recruited new victims personally. Many
trafficking victims appeared to be aware or at least to suspect that they
were going to work as prostitutes, but did not expect to work in slave‑like
conditions. Most trafficked persons traveled to their destinations on forged
passports obtained abroad, most often from Adolescents raised in orphanages,
regardless of gender, and residents of rural and economically disadvantaged
areas were particularly vulnerable to being trafficked. The country's
relative prosperity otherwise served as a factor against citizens being
trafficked through seeking employment abroad. During the year an orphanage
director in the southern part of the country was caught attempting to traffic
teenage girls to the UAE. The highly publicized case remained ongoing at
year's end. Men and women were trafficked to
the country for labor exploitation; some evidence also suggested children
were trafficked from Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2003 [45] The Committee notes the
existence of the National Board on Adoption and of regulations for
organizations involved in domestic and inter-country adoption. However, taking into account the very large
number of abandoned children, the Committee is concerned at the lack of a
comprehensive policy regarding domestic and inter-country adoption, including
effective monitoring and follow-up of adoptions. [72] The Committee is concerned at:
(a) The growing involvement of
children in the sex industry and the apparent indifference of society towards
the issue of child prostitution, including reports of parents themselves
reportedly forcing their children to earn money through prostitution; (b) The lack of specialized centres to accommodate and provide qualified services,
including psychotherapeutic and rehabilitation and reintegration programmes, for child victims of sexual violence. EU
Presses Russia on Human Trafficking Like many struggling young people
in the former Soviet republics, 17-year-old Maryam
dreamed of a better life. She thought she was on her way to one when she
decided to leave her native Kazakhstan to work as a shop assistant in Russia.
Maryam said she was lured into the trap
by a man named Dastan, who paid her parents $300,
gave her a false passport, and accompanied her to Samara, a central Russian
city with a population of 1.3 million people. Her story is among those
included in a report by the Geneva-based International Labor Organization
(ILO) on human trafficking, released at the end of 2005. Atyrau authorities plan to prevent human trafficking Presentation of plan of measures
on struggle and prevention of crimes connected with human trafficking for
2006-2008 took place in the Atyrau oblast (a region
of Kazakhstan).Local authorities plan to hold actions with the help of mass
media in order to raise public awareness, arrange seminars and so on. They
also intend to strengthen control over illegal migration of foreign citizens
to the region, check activity of employment agencies and organizations
rendering services to the population on preparation of documents of
Kazakhstan’s citizens leaving abroad. Kazak Women Sold as Sex Slaves When teenagers Lyuda
and Sveta were offered work in Turkey, the promised
salary of 400-450 US dollars per month was beyond their wildest dreams. Little did they know of the horror that
awaited them in Kazakhstan
Ups Efforts To Combat Human Trafficking 12 criminal cases were opened under
the Criminal Code's "human trafficking" statute in 2004, twice as
many as in 2003, and five channels for trafficking Kazakh citizens abroad for
sexual and other exploitation were identified and blocked in 2004. The
Protection Project - Kazakhstan [DOC] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 victims are trafficked
annually from Kazakhstan. Estimates by
local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Kazakhstan are even more
striking. One NGO has estimated that 70,000 women have been trafficked out of
the country in the 10 years since its independence; this number includes only
those women who managed to return home—the number of those who are still
enslaved or who died in the hands of traffickers is unknown. This estimate
amounts to roughly 1 percent of the total female population in Kazakhstan. Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 6 Civil Liberties: 5 Status: Not Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide Stop Violence Against Women – Country Page U.S. Library of Congress
- Country Study Forced
Labour In The Russian Federation Today: Irregular
Migration And Trafficking In Human Beings [PDF] - Elena Tyuryukanova [page 107] APPENDIX I
- INTERVIEWS WITH VICTIMS OF
FORCED LABOUR [page 108] CASE 2 - A 16-year old
girl from Kazakhstan was sold by her parents. Her documents were forged and
she was subsequently a victim of fraud, physical and sexual coercion,
physical restraint and threats. The interview took place in Omsk. There were
six children in our family. I am the second. There [in Kazakhstan] people
live in poverty, lacking electricity and water. Sometimes we didn’t even have
bread at home. My mother made ends meet by occasional earnings, and my father
spent everything on drink. I was thinking about how to get out of this
situation, to help my brothers and sisters and do something for myself. And I
met a man by chance. He proposed that I could earn money at market. He came
to my parents - I am underage - and proposed that I work at a market in Smara. He paid money to my parents so that they would let
me go to Samara. [page 110] CASE 3 - An 18-year old
woman from Kazakhstan was trafficked to Russia where she was subject to
physical and sexual violence, coercion to perform sexual services, physical
restraint and threats. The interview took place in Omsk. I lived in Kazakhstan in a big family of 12
children. We lived in poverty. We were even happy to drink water with bread.
My mother worked at a grocery and earned little. My father drank all the
time, and beat my younger sisters and brothers. My youngest brother, who is
eight, collected bottles for money. It was a horrifying situation. Kazakhstan News Bulletin - July 7, 2004 Vol. 1, No. 31 [3rd article] KAZAKHSTAN PLANS TOUGHER PUNISHMENT
FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING
- One of the problems authorities face is the natural desire of victims to
stay anonymous. This is where the recently created “crisis centers” come in
to play. People come with their problems these centers more often then they
do to law enforcement agencies. The cooperation between the police and the
crisis centers is crucial in thwarting modern-day slavery, officials said. Corruption is Limiting Kazakhstan’s Efforts Against Human Trafficking Michael Chance, the head of the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Kazakhstan, told Radio Free
Europe that corrupt officials are limiting the effectiveness of Kazakhstan’s
efforts to combat human trafficking.
According to official figures, 110 cases against people alleged to be
involved in trafficking were initiated in the first three months of 2004,
only eight cases were opened in all of 2003. The IOM official said, however,
that few traffickers have been punished because those involved in the trade
have enough money to bribe investigators. NOW SHOW YOU MEAN IT - In the face of criticism from a
number of international human rights groups, President Nazarbayev
has signed legislation tightening prohibitions on trafficking in human
beings, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. Government
officials say the problem has become acute, with Kazakh citizens falling into
the hands of traffickers when they abroad in search of work, and the country
itself has been a transit route for trafficked persons. After drugs and
weapons, human trafficking is the third most profitable crime in Kazakhstan,
according to Khabar.Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan
Attacks Human Trafficking Dospolov said that the State Department
assertion was based partly on the fact that no sentences were handed down in
2002 for crimes related to human trafficking, but he argued that such crimes
can be difficult to investigate because the victims are sent abroad. U.S.
Lauds Kazakhstan for Actions Against Human Trafficking The White House has notified the
U.S. Congress that Kazakhstan made "significant steps to fight
trafficking in persons" and given recognition to Astana for its efforts
in this area. In a September 10
statement from the White House press secretary, Kazakhstan was said to
"deserve recognition for their quick action to address problems noted in
the Department of State's June 2003 Trafficking in Persons Report." US
Human Trafficking Report Faults Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan Kazakhstan received a Tier 3
designation largely because of authorities’ diminished response to the human
trafficking issue over the past year. Though Kazakh law forbids "illicit
migration" and officials investigated several reports of trafficking, no
cases have yet gone to court. However the reported noted that the government
"presented to Parliament long-awaited draft anti-trafficking
legislation, which passed the lower house of Parliament on May 15." All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [Kazakhstan Street Children in [Kazakhstan] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Kazakhstan] [other countries]