Often, these are women in difficult life situations. In most cases, they do not seek help because of the fear of condemnation.
“I came to work as a hotel hostess, but I was forced to provide sex services. In our club, whenever a visitor wanted to take you for a night, he would pay nearly 500 dollars for that. The owner always gave permission. Otherwise, I had to pay a fine,” Aigulya Tustikbaeva told about the most terrible month of her life.
Three years ago, she left her hometown Taraz (Kazakhstan) and moved to Istanbul looking for a job and found herself in sexual slavery. They seized her documents and forced her to do whatever her clients wanted her to do.
A nightclub where Aigulya Tustikbaeva was in sexual slavery. Photo: CABAR.asia
To bribe her way out of trouble, the girl took out an online loan in Kazakhstan in the amount of nearly 1,000 dollars.
Afterwards, she came to the police of Istanbul, but when it came to the initiation of a criminal case, Tustikbaeva wrote a counterstatement as she feared that she would have to stay in Turkey for a few months, until the investigation and the court are over.
Many such cases take place. According to the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Turkey, in 2021 the country had 469 officially confirmed cases of women freed from sexual slavery, including female citizens of Central Asian states. However, according to experts, the number of victims of human trafficking is much more than that.
In 2005, the Human Resources Development Fund, headed by Bertha Eren, opened a shelter for women who were held in sexual slavery in Istanbul. According to them, most women turning for help are from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Moldavia, Romania and Georgia.
According to the Global Data Hub on Human Trafficking, over 6 thousand citizens of Central Asia were in sexual, labour or other slavery from 2005 to 2021.
Nuriza is from Uzgen in Kyrgyzstan. In 2016, she went to Moscow to her sister to earn a living, and last year she decided to move to Istanbul. She told that she fell in love with the city at first sight and dreamed of a good job to stay, and now she cannot get back home.
Searching for a job in Turkey, Nuriza met with the owner of Balikci Mehmet café in Kumkapi district in the historical centre of Istanbul. He offered her a job of a waitress and gave her a contract in Turkish to sign. But the girl did not know the language well.
“I signed the contract with the Turk who promised me whole mountains of gold. In fact, the salary was only 7,000 liras (nearly 380 dollars) and I was accommodated in the hostel. I cannot leave as the owner has my passport. I went to the police but they didn’t want to listen to me,” she said.
Two years ago, Uzbekistani Samira Nasimova moved with her husband to Istanbul. But one year later, he found another woman and sold her. Now she is forced to beg alms outdoors and to bring 300 liras a day (nearly 16.5 dollars), otherwise she would be beaten and left without food.
“Our owner has nearly 40 workers. We are all scattered around Istanbul. Sometimes, he can call me and force me to give his massage. If I don’t earn money, they leave me without food. I cannot buy food myself because they will know about it. I hope I can leave someday,” she said.
On the average, according to the Global Data Hub on Human Trafficking, nearly 60 per cent of Central Asia citizens found in slavery are women.
The geography of human trafficking directions is very wide and differs in every country. Many people become enslaved in Kazakhstan or Russia, and sometimes even in their home country.
But the list is not limited to these countries.
26-year-old Karina of the village of Shamalgan, Almaty region, went to study culinary art in 2006 to China via the travel agency “Future”, which does not exist anymore. The girl lived in Beijing, and her passport was seized in a month and she was engaged in sexual slavery in Hong Kong.
“I have lived very well for one month. They have paid all my costs, trained me at a high level. I have trusted them and given them my passport. Afterwards, they told me I had to work for them for three months; otherwise, they would send me to prison. Later, I was bought out by [other traffickers], as I heard, for 15 thousand dollars. I managed to escape on the quiet and call the police,” the girl said.
In 2020, the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Kazakhstan detained a criminal group that recruited girls aged 16-25, and then sold them into sexual slavery to Bahrain. 39 girls were found victims, and the criminals were sentenced to various prison terms in December 2021.
One of the girls who was found in sexual slavery in Bahrain was Aselya Ibragimova, resident of Shymkent. According to her, her friend called her to work as a bartender at Awali.
“I needed money very much. When I could not get the scholarship, my parents told me to work. So, I had to look for a job. In our region, salary is 30 thousand tenge (nearly 64 dollars). But when we arrived there, they seized my passport at once, and I had to provide sex services for two years. I used to serve 5-6 clients a day, and then I started to drink alcohol a lot. When consular officers saved us, I was very exhausted. Now I am working with a psychologist, but it’s difficult to forget such things,” she said.
In April 2021, 26-year-old Kazakhstani Asel Aitpaeva went to Georgia to earn a living. One month later, her body was found under the multi-storey building at Tbilisi. As the investigation found out, the girl was invited to earn some money by her relative Murat Meirbekov. In Georgia, he raped her twice and then handed her over to his partner, Besik Tordua. He died in the Georgian prison, and Murat Meirbekov was sentenced to 15 years.
Anna Nastichenko, psychologist of “Alternativa” movement, said that people who do not have education often become enslaved. The risk factor usually become life difficulties, which result in the person’s exploitation.
“Traffickers do not necessarily deprive you of your freedom, they act trickily. ‘You will be imprisoned’, ‘I will send your sex videos to your relatives’, ‘I’ll kill your relatives’ – these are the threats that are often voiced and victims agree to anything. I think the number of psychologists must be increased and round table discussions must be held with the population to tell more about such stories. Female citizens of CIS countries often try to keep back the truth because other people would criticise them,” she said.
In 2005, the International Organisation for Migration opened hotline 157 in Turkey to fight human trafficking and to help women who became sexual slaves. According to the International Labour Organisation, annual world profits from slavery is about 150 billion dollars, while nearly 40 million people become victims of human trafficking.