Dushanbe. June 16. “Asia-Plus” — Tajikistan is a source country for women and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution, and for men, women, and children in conditions of forced labor, the U.S. Department of State said in its 10th annual Trafficking in Persons Report released on Monday, June 14, 2010.
Women from Tajikistan are subjected to forced prostitution in the UAE, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. These women often transit Kyrgyzstan before reaching their destination country, the report says.
IOM estimates that a significant percentage of Tajikistan’s one million labor migrants are victims of forced labor, primarily after voluntarily migrating to Russia in search of work. Men from Tajikistan are subjected to conditions of forced labor in Russia’s agricultural and construction sectors and, to a lesser extent, the same sectors in Kazakhstan and Afghanistan, the report stresses.
According to the report, Tajik children are exploited within Tajikistan during the annual cotton harvest. Tajik children are also trafficked within Tajikistan for prostitution and forced labor, including forced begging. Some adult government employees, including doctors and teachers, were required by Tajik authorities to pick cotton for up to two weeks in lieu of their regular duties during the 2009 cotton harvest. Some teachers were forced to pick cotton in addition to their regular duties and were not compensated for this labor.
The U.S. Department of State is confident that the Government of Tajikistan does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making made significant efforts to do so. Despite these efforts, the government did not demonstrate progress in ending its practice of compelling adults and children to pick cotton during the annual harvest and did not investigate, prosecute, convict, or punish any officials complicit in this forced labor. Therefore, Tajikistan is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year. A partnership that the government had forged with law enforcement authorities in Dubai led to the identification and repatriation of at least 10 victims of forced prostitution in February 2010, the U.S. State Department says in the report.
It recommends the Government of Tajikistan to enforce the prohibition of coerced labor of children and adults in the annual cotton harvest through such practices as monitoring school and university attendance and inspecting cotton fields during the harvest; vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses, especially those involving forced labor, and convict and punish trafficking offenders, including local officials who force individuals to participate in the cotton harvest, with imprisonment; educate school administrators about Tajik laws against forced labor; increase funding and resources available to the anti-trafficking police unit; continue to build partnerships with foreign counterparts in order to conduct joint law enforcement investigations and repatriate Tajik victims from abroad; develop a formal victim identification and referral mechanism; continue to provide victim identification and victim sensitivity training to border guard and law enforcement authorities; encourage NGO care providers to be present during victim interviews with law enforcement; provide financial or in-kind assistance to existing trafficking shelters; make efforts to improve trafficking data collection and analysis; and conduct a trafficking awareness campaign targeting both rural and urban parts of the country, including raising awareness in rural villages about how offers of marriage may be used to deceive women and traffic them into forced prostitution.
According to the report, the Government of Tajikistan reported modest anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts during the reporting period. In 2009, authorities reported investigating at least nine individuals suspected of trafficking, compared with 23 trafficking investigations in 2008. The government reported prosecuting at least three cases for human trafficking against nine individuals in 2009, compared with 23 cases prosecuted in 2008. Courts convicted three trafficking offenders in 2009, compared with 17 convictions reported in 2008. Investigation, prosecution, and conviction data reported in 2008 likely included cases involving baby selling, which is activity that is beyond the scope of this report. The government reported that three individuals were sentenced for terms of five to 10 years’ imprisonment for trafficking offenses in 2009.
The report says that Tajikistan demonstrated limited efforts to raise awareness of trafficking during the reporting period. The government conducted a limited anti-trafficking informational campaign in 2009. The Prosecutor General’s Office reported that in 2009 officials appeared on two Tajik television programs to promote awareness of human trafficking. The government did not fund any NGOs that conducted awareness efforts. The officials reported that these programs were shown on a recurring basis. NGO’s interviews with sex trafficking victims in Dubai revealed that many recruiters traveled to rural villages in Tajikistan and promised women marriage to wealthy Arab men in the UAE.
