DUSHANBE, July 6, Asia-Plus — Over the first three months of 2007, Tajik law enforcement authorities have instituted eleven criminal proceedings on charges under Article 167 of Tajikistan’s Criminal Code (buying and selling of minors) and six criminal proceedings on charges under Article 137 (recruitment of persons for exploitation), Firouz Sattorov, the head of the department for preventing human trafficking of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Mission in Tajikistan, announced at a briefing in Dushanbe on July 6.
According to him, the country’s law enforcement authorities last year instituted 46 criminal proceedings on charges of recruitment of persons for exploitation and twelve criminal proceedings on charges of buying and selling of minors. He also noted that over the past five years (2002-2007), some 50,000 Tajik nationals had been freed from bondage in the CIS and some Gulf countries.
Speaking to journalists, Muzaffar Zaripov, director of the IOM Information and Resource Center for Labor Migrants in Dushanbe, noted that many Tajik nationals are leaving for Russia and other CIS countries in order to find better economic conditions and to support their families.
“Because of poor knowledge of the travel and the employment realities, many of them find themselves in irregular situations and are victims of abuse and exploitation,” Zaripov said, adding that there are cases when our fellow-countrymen get into bondage through firms offering employment abroad. In this connection he noted that establishment of inter-agency commission for combating human trafficking could play an important role in tackling the problem.
IOM is the leading agency in Tajikistan on combating trafficking, and has projects to enhance capacity of law enforcement and judges to investigate, prosecute and judge human traffickers and protect the victims. In parallel with important irregular outflows of Tajiks seeking jobs abroad, since the late 1990s recruitment middlemen have appeared promising fictive jobs abroad. Men are promised jobs in the construction sector in Russia and women are promised profitable business opportunities mostly in the Gulf countries. The reality turns out to be sheer exploitation.
