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/Tajikistan.htm
Tajikistan is a
source country for women trafficked to the UAE often through Kyrgyzstan and
Russia, for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Some women are
trafficked from Tajikistan to Russia, Turkey, Iran, and India for the purpose
of commercial sexual exploitation. Men are trafficked to Russia and, to a
lesser extent, Kazakhstan for the purpose of forced labor, primarily in the
construction and agricultural sectors. Children, men, and women are coerced
by some local government authorities to harvest cotton. In 2008, a small
number of Tajik men were trafficked to Poland for the purpose of forced
labor. Boys and girls are trafficked internally for various purposes,
including forced labor, forced begging, and commercial sexual exploitation. -
U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report,
June, 2009 Check out a later country report here and possibly a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in 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 *** Woman jailed for
forcing child into sex trade Independent Online
(IOL) News, www.iol.co.za/news/world/woman-jailed-for-forcing-child-into-sex-trade-1.226224 [accessed 28
December 2010] Last week a
non-governmental organisation said there was a
growing trend in the abduction and sale of Tajik boys for sexual exploitation
abroad. The Modar
organisation said groups in the United Arab
Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries were prepared to pay as much
as $70 000 for a Tajik boy between the ages of 10 and 12. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country Reports
on Human Rights Practices: Tajikistan 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/tajikistan/
[accessed 28 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Tajik children and
adults may be subjected to forced labor in agriculture, mainly during the country’s
fall cotton harvest, but also in dried fruit production. The government may
have subjected some citizens to participate in manual labor, such as cleaning
roads and park maintenance. Some Afghan and Bangladeshi citizens were victims
of forced labor in the country, including in the construction industry. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT The government did
not effectively enforce the law and many children under the age of 15 worked
in the country. Many children younger than 10 worked in bazaars or sold goods
on the street. The highest incidences of child labor were in the domestic and
agricultural sectors and some children performed hazardous work. There were reports
that military recruitment authorities kidnapped children younger than 18 from
public places and subjected them to compulsory military service to fulfill
local recruitment quotas. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/tajikistan/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? According to the
2019 US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report, the Tajik government
has made significant efforts to improve enforcement of laws against forced
labor, trafficking, and especially child labor during the cotton harvest
season, though such practices have persisted to some extent. Safeguards
against other forms of labor exploitation and hazardous working conditions
are not well enforced. The scarcity of economic opportunity has compelled
citizens to seek work abroad in large numbers, and these migrant workers are
at risk of exploitation by human traffickers. Tajik Officials
Step Up Fight Against Human Trafficking Radio Free
Europe/Radio www.rferl.org/content/article/1078184.html [accessed 28
December 2010] The The Tajik
General-Prosecutor's Office says that 24 criminal cases on the trafficking of
children have been opened during the past seven months. Some Tajik 80 women who had reportedly
fallen victim to traffickers have been brought back from foreign countries in
the past four years. Human Trafficking Fuelled by Ignorance Institute for War
& Peace Reporting, News Briefing Central iwpr.net/report-news/human-trafficking-fuelled-ignorance [accessed 28
December 2010] iwpr.net/global-voices/human-trafficking-fuelled-ignorance [accessed 19
February 2018] Gulchehra Mirzoeva, director of Modar, an
NGO that works on human trafficking, says most migrants do not have the
knowledge that they need to defend themselves abroad. Most of the million
migrant workers who leave Tajikistan every year do not know the language of
the country they end up in or its laws, she explains. That leaves them wide open to exploitation,
and the young are particularly at risk.
Mirzoeva believes that not enough is being
done to raise awareness among young people of the dangers of human
trafficking. Criminal gangs are well
aware of this ignorance, and use it to “lure young people into slavery”, said
Firuz Saidov, an
independent expert on social affairs. REGNUM News Agency,
07/06/2007 www.regnum.ru/english/853542.html [accessed 28
December 2010] At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly also be accessible [here] The source drew
attention to the fact that the ILO and UNDP initiative is aimed at
encouraging effort of all national partners in the migration sphere in order
to increase protection of Tajik workers abroad and establish decent working
conditions in the home country. According to the ILO, pilot projects will be
conducted in the Rasht Valley (eastern Tajikistan), an economically
underdeveloped area with the highest migration rate in the country. According to the Tajik
Labor and Social Protection Ministry, about 600,000 Tajik workers are
employed abroad. Human Trafficking
Business Booming In Source: Pravda.Ru, 30 September 2005 english.pravda.ru/news/world/30-09-2005/67181-0/ [accessed 28
December 2010] Twenty-six women
were returned to The Curse of
Cotton: Central Asia's Destructive Monoculture International Crisis
Group, Asia Report N°93, 28 February 2005 www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/asia/central-asia/093-the-curse-of-cotton-central-asias-destructive-monoculture.aspx [accessed 23 June
2013] www.files.ethz.ch/isn/28408/093_curse_of_cotton_central_asia_destructive_monoculture.pdf [accessed 5 October
2016] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
- The economics of Central Asian cotton are simple and exploitative. Millions of the rural poor work for little
or no reward growing and harvesting the crop.
Forced and child labor and other abuses are common. Schoolchildren are still regularly required
to spend up to two months in the cotton fields in Stephen Lewis
speaking on gender and HIV/AIDS [TEXT] Text of a speech by Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for
HIV/AIDS in Africa, delivered at the At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 12
September 2011] Domestic violence
is another major issue in the region, and can be so severe that young wives
in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan see no way out other than suicide -
usually though the horrific method of self-immolation, which can result in
terrible, if not fatal, injuries. [accessed 28 December 2010] Essential
Background: Overview of human rights issues in Human Rights Watch
World Report 2005, 12 January 2005 www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2005/01/13/tajiki9897.htm [accessed 28
December 2010] HUMAN TRAFFICKING - Human trafficking
is a significant problem in Tajikistan: Human
Trafficking A Growing Concern Antoine Blua with Sojida Djakhfarova of RFE/RL's Tajik Service, Radio Free
Europe/Radio www.rferl.org/content/article/1052431.html [accessed 28
December 2010] Madina remembers vividly
her ordeal at the hands of a human trafficker. This Tajik single mother was desperate
to secure a better life for herself and her two children. Responding to an
offer from a man she didn't know, she left Tajikistan with the hope of a
respectable job and a good salary. "I was working
in a local market [in Tajikistan]. One day a man talked to me and asked about
my life. I told him that it was too hard, that I had a lot of problems, that
I had two children and not enough money to feed them," she says. "I
[am] divorced from my husband. Then he said: 'If you want you can come with
me abroad. There are a lot of jobs [there] and I can help you to find one.' I
believed what he said and I followed him." Trafficking in
women is a problem for Tajikistan BBC Monitoring
International Reports, 09 February
2002 www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-85316970/trafficking-women-problem-tajikistan.html [partially accessed
28 December 2010 - access restricted] "The
trafficking in women and girls from IOM Study Reveals
Trends In Trafficking In Women From CNEWS, 27 November
2001 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 12
September 2011] [scroll down to
August 17, 2001] (International
Organization for Migration – Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 6 October 2000 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/tajikistan2000.html [accessed 28
December 2010] [32] The Committee
is concerned about the absence of national adoption standards, particularly
in relation to foster and adoptive family screening. The Committee is also
concerned at the absence of mechanisms to review, monitor and follow up
adoptions, and of statistics on foster care and adoption. [50] The Committee
is concerned at the increase in the prostitution and trafficking of children
and women and the absence of an effective, comprehensive and integrated
approach to prevent and combat these phenomena. The Committee is also
concerned at the insufficient data and awareness of the phenomena of
commercial sexual exploitation of children in Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org/europecentral-asia/tajikistan [accessed 7 May
2020] Tajikistan’s human
rights record continues to deteriorate amid an ongoing crackdown on freedom
of expression and the political opposition, as well as the targeting of
independent lawyers, journalists, and even the family members of opposition
activists abroad. Authorities’ use of torture to obtain confessions remains a
serious concern. The government continues to block various websites with
information critical of the government, subject human rights groups to
harassment, including a law requiring nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to
register all sources of funding from foreign sources, restricts media
freedoms, and has enforced serious restrictions on religious practice.
Lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people are subjected to
wide-ranging discrimination and homophobia. Domestic violence against women
also continues to be a serious problem, despite the adoption of a law on
domestic violence in 2013 that provided some human rights protections. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61679.htm [accessed 11
February 2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– The majority of trafficking victims were female, single, and aged 20 to 26.
Many were new arrivals to Women and girls
were trafficked from the country primarily for cheap domestic labor or sex
work. Male trafficking victims were primarily used for labor abroad in
agriculture, factories, or construction; some were held as slaves without
pay. Traffickers
included former field commanders--so-called warlords‑ who rose to
positions of power and wealth during the country's civil war. Others,
including women, were powerful local figures who used their wealth to
cultivate patron-client relationships throughout their community to create a
trafficking network. Recruiters were also often individuals familiar to
victims, such as neighbors, acquaintances, or relatives. Victims commonly
were recruited through false promises of employment. Advertisement of such
work was conducted through social contacts; traffickers used their local
status and prestige to help recruit victims. There also were cases of false
wedding proposals and, on occasion, kidnappings in rural areas. Traffickers
generally transported victims by air to the Middle East and by train to All
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