Human Trafficking in [Kyrgyz Republic Street Children in [Kyrgyz Republic] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Kyrgyz Republic] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the
early years of the 21st Century - 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/KyrgyzRepublic.htm
The Kyrgyz Republic is a source,
transit, and to a lesser extent, a destination country for men and women
trafficked from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and South Asia for
purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Men and women are
trafficked to Kazakhstan and Russia for the purpose of forced labor in the
agricultural, construction, and textile industries. Kyrgyz and foreign women
are trafficked to the U.A.E, Kazakhstan, China, South Korea, Turkey, Greece,
Cyprus, Thailand, Germany, and Syria for commercial sexual exploitation. The
city of Osh is a growing destination for women
trafficked from Uzbekistan for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation.
- U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country
report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Petr Lom,
Frontline World, March 2004 www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/kyrgyzstan/thestory.html [accessed 17 February 2011] When the bride does arrive, she is
dragged into the groom's house, struggling and crying. Her name is Norkuz, and it turns out she has been kidnapped from her
home about a mile away. As the women of the groom's family
surround Norkuz and hold down both of her hands,
they are at once forceful and comforting, informing her that they, too, were
kidnapped. The kidnappers insist that they negotiated the abduction with Norkuz's brother, but her sister, a lawyer from Osh, arrives to protest that her sister is being forced
to marry a stranger. Ideally in Kyrgyz circles, a bride's family gets a price
for their daughter, but Norkuz is 25 -- considered
late to marry -- and the women remind her she is lucky she was kidnapped at
all. Preventing Human Trafficking in Contributors: At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 7 September 2011] V. CONCLUSIONS - The use of human beings as
collateral in trade deals is a specific type of human trafficking that exists
in the Naryn region of ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004
Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/kyrgyz-republic.htm [accessed 29 November 2010] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children are reported to work as prostitutes in urban areas
throughout the country. The Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61657.htm [accessed 17 February 2011] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – Groups
targeted by traffickers included young women unable to earn an adequate
living. Poor economic conditions, high unemployment--particularly in the
south--and gender inequality made young women and poor workers vulnerable to
traffickers who offered lucrative jobs or marriage offers to rich men abroad.
The IOM estimated approximately 70 percent of trafficking victims were from
the south. Often women were lured abroad via newspaper advertisements or even
announcements over loudspeakers in local bazaars. Women responding to job
offers for waitresses, au pairs, or dancers, or to marriage agencies could
find themselves abroad without documents or money for return tickets and
forced to work for their traffickers. Traffickers were often persons who
previously operated local prostitution networks. Relatives or close family
friends were also reportedly used to recruit trafficking victims. Tour
agents, restaurants, and nightclubs supplemented their activities by
trafficking young women to foreign prostitution rings. Traffickers of persons
for sexual exploitation included organized crime rings that often used former
trafficking victims as recruiters. In some cases traffickers provided
escorts, usually an older woman, to accompany victims and facilitate border
crossings into countries such as the UAE, where young women were generally
not allowed to enter alone. Labor trafficking was much less organized and
often involved self-employed recruiters who simply loaded persons onto buses
and transported them to the country for work on farms, as well as labor
recruitment firms Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1 October 2004 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/kyrgyzstan2004.html [accessed 17 February 2011] [61] The
Committee is concerned that the recommendations made upon consideration of
the State party’s initial report with regard to the involvement of children
in sexual exploitation have not been fully implemented. The Committee is also
concerned about the health risks posed to children who are sexually exploited
and/or trafficked. Kyrgyz Police Halt Flight To U.A.E. On Trafficking
Suspicion February 2006 www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/2006/06-02-16.rferl.html#21 [accessed 17 February 2011] One, a resident of Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 5 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=363&year=2009&country=7641 [accessed 17 February 2011] Human Rights Overview Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org/europecentral-asia/kyrgyzstan [accessed 17 February 2011] Stop Violence Against Women – Country Page The Advocates for Human Rights, 14 January 2009 [accessed 17 February 2011] Library of Congress Call Number DK851 .K34 1997 lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/kgtoc.html [accessed 17 February 2011] Aigul Rasulova,
Eurasianet, June 28, 2004 www.eurasianet.org/departments/rights/articles/eav062904.shtml [accessed 17 February 2011] Seventeen-year-old Olga only wanted
a job. Instead, lured to China with the promise of work in a restaurant, this
Kyrgyzstani teenager found herself sold into a
prostitution ring. "If we refused to work as
prostitutes, the owner threatened to punish us," Olga said. With no
money and no passports, Olga and five other girls from Kyrgyzstan were held
in bondage for a month. In the end, alerted by concerned parents, a joint
Interpol operation with officers from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and China
located the girls and set them free. Petr Lom,
Frontline World, March 2004 www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/kyrgyzstan/thestory.html [accessed 17 February 2011] When the bride does arrive, she is
dragged into the groom's house, struggling and crying. Her name is Norkuz, and it turns out she has been kidnapped from her
home about a mile away. As the women of the groom's family
surround Norkuz and hold down both of her hands,
they are at once forceful and comforting, informing her that they, too, were
kidnapped. The kidnappers insist that they negotiated the abduction with Norkuz's brother, but her sister, a lawyer from Osh, arrives to protest that her sister is being forced
to marry a stranger. Ideally in Kyrgyz circles, a bride's family gets a price
for their daughter, but Norkuz is 25 -- considered
late to marry -- and the women remind her she is lucky she was kidnapped at
all. Facts & Stats Frontline World, March 2004 www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/kyrgyzstan/facts.html#05 [accessed 17 February 2011] WOMEN AND BRIDE KIDNAPPING IN Bride kidnappings reportedly range
from staged, consensual events that are planned after the bride and groom
have been dating to violent, nonconsensual events planned by the family of
the groom. It's been estimated that up
to a third of all ethnic Kyrgyz women in Kyrgyzstan may have been wedded in
nonconsensual bride kidnappings. Bride Kidnapping: What Makes Women Stay Abdulaeva Shirin, Arjomand faculty.philau.edu/kleinbachr/why_women_stay.htm [accessed 17 February 2011] RESULTS - On the basis of our interviews,
out of the six people interviewed, four of them had been divorced within the
first few years of their abduction. One committed suicide and only one is
still with her husband. In all of
these cases, the women were made to stay with their abductors due to
pressure from their families and the
fear of being ostracized from society if they returned, and not being able to
find a husband. In one case the woman said that when she was abducted her
first thought was that she was going to be killed, so when she found out that
instead she was going to be married she gladly accepted this ‘better option’ New passport to help combat human trafficking UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=24471 [accessed 17 February 2011] The old Kyrgyz passport is not in
compliance with international standards, a fact the authorities feel could
contribute to human trafficking and terrorist activities, and threaten
national security. There have been some unconfirmed reports that human
traffickers fly their Uzbek and Tajik victims via the southern Kyrgyz city of
Osh to the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and other
countries using forged Kyrgyz passports, something deemed impossible with the
use of new travel documents, experts say. Preventing Human Trafficking in Contributors: At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 7 September 2011] V. CONCLUSIONS - The use of human beings as
collateral in trade deals is a specific type of human trafficking that exists
in the Naryn region of Widespread Human Rights Abuses Undermine Kyrgyz Mental
Health Care Eurasianet , May 6, 2004 www.eurasianet.org/departments/rights/articles/eav050704.shtml [accessed 17 February 2011] At both Chim-Korgon
and the Republican Mental Health Clinic, forced labor occurs in violation of
both the Kyrgyz Constitution and international law. Neither hospital pays
patients for their work. At RMHC, patients take part in so-called "labor
therapy" to improve hospital grounds. At Chim-Kogron,
patients work the hospital’s vegetable fields to diversify their diet.
"If a patient wishes to have a diet that consists of anything
substantially more than bread, pasta, or tea, he or she must work for this
food," the report states. Yet only patients who have demonstrated good
behavior and a stable psychiatric condition have access to the food. UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, Ankara,
21 Oct 2003 www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=20782 [accessed 7 September 2011] GROWING PROBLEM - "We conducted some
research in the year 2000 in [the Kyrgyz capital] Bishkek, which concluded
that some 4,000 women a year were trafficked from the Preventing Human Trafficking Project in Winrock International, 08/07/2010 faculty.philau.edu/kleinbachr/organizations.htm [accessed 17 February 2011] [scroll down] In fall 2003, Winrock
International began a two-year project to prevent human trafficking in The UN Link - The United Nations System in dev.un.org.kg/english/unlink.phtml?174#5 [access date unavailable] INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION - Poverty and lack of economic opportunities are the main
core of smuggling of and trafficking in human beings. These factors encourage
women and men to seek work abroad, in situations where perhaps they might not
otherwise do so. Methods of recruitment in the Kyrgyz Republic are similar to
other parts of the world. Newspaper advertisements, tourist firms, friends or
acquaintances, and the Internet are key instruments in the effective
organized recruitment of women, girls and, recently, young men into forced
labor, and often into sexual exploitation. The experience of the
International Organization for Migration shows that women from province are
potential victims of trafficking, since they have more limited access to
information. A promise of better life abroad attracts them to go there. Women
are enticed by false promises of highly paid work, nice housing and good
labor conditions in the United Arab Emirates or South Korea. Cultural factors
and lack of relevant legislation pose obstacles for female victims to pursue
traffickers; accountability within some government structures demand
attention to the legal environment for prosecution of traffickers. Rights
of the Child in Ramazan Dyryldaev
and Séverine Jacomy, The
Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights -- A report prepared for the Committee on
the Rights of Child, Geneva, February 2004 www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/crc.37/Kyrgyzstan_OMCT_ngo_report.doc [accessed 12 June 2011] C.
SEXUAL ABUSE, TRAFFICKING AND SEXUAL EXPLOITATION - Several sources report a
growing trend of selling or “handing over” of girls by their own parents.
These girls are most vulnerable to near slavery and sexual abuse in early
marriage and/or to prostitution and trafficking. Both IWPR and IOM/OSCE reports confirm local estimates that For instance, Vecherniy
Bishkek reported the case of two girls, Alina, 17
years old, and Dinara, 15 years old, who managed to
escape from a brothel before they were transported to UAE .
Alina reported that in early October 2003, around 4
p.m., she was approached by two unknown young men at a mini-market in Jalal-Abad. Under some false pretext they took her to a
solitary room, and one of them knocked her unconscious with a heavy object.
When she recovered she found herself lying on a sofa in a strange room, with
another girl who was in tears. They were kept for several days under guard in
the same flat, then taken in a car to Bishkek
located 600 km away from Jalal-Abad. Throughout the
trip they were tied up, with Scotch tape put over their mouths. Several times
the car was stopped at police posts, but the traffickers paid ransom and
drove on. In Bishkek the girls were kept in a one-room flat. Potential buyers
were arriving daily to bargain and examine the "merchandise". In
order to break their will the kidnappers would beat the girls; they took away
all their clothes and jewellery. They demanded that
the girls "work" to compensate the costs of carrying them to
Bishkek. During the weeks in slavery the girls "changed hands"
several times: "First we were bought by Mavlyuda,
then resold to Ainura.
Finally, when the guards' attention lapsed we escaped from that flat."
But many others were not so lucky. According to various NGOs and public
opinion polls, human traffickers in Even when pimping and trafficking
networks are uncovered, IWPR official interviewees argue that law enforcement
remains the central problem. “For Kubanych Kudaiberdiev, a captain in the Kyrgyz police force,
building a credible case is the problem. “It is hard to prove that a girl is
a prostitute,” he said. “ To do that, we need to see
the actual monetary transaction take place, or get a statement from the
client. In theory, that may sound quite realistic, but I have never seen it
in all my experience.” Lieutenant-Colonel Musuralieva
says the challenge is not catching the criminals, but getting a prosecution
through the courts successfully when the criminals may have friends in high
places. Her juvenile affairs department regularly teams up with criminal
investigation officers to conduct raids, codenamed “Butterfly”, to catch both
prostitutes and their pimps. “We keep on uncovering these
case, but we’re unable to bring them to their logical conclusion,” she
said. “For instance, two cases were filed against pimps this year, but both
were dropped. They got help from people higher up, and the cases were closed.
It’s likely that these pimps have got backing from some of our high-ranking
[police] officers. I’m not afraid to say so.” But even when cases do go to
court, defendants can often afford good lawyers while the child prostitutes
have no one prepared to take the witness stand for them. If they have parents
or relatives, these will often refuse to testify against the pimps. 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:
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Human Trafficking in [Kyrgyz Republic Street Children in [Kyrgyz Republic] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Kyrgyz Republic] [other countries]