The coronavirus pandemic has aggravated the risk of trafficking in persons, especially for women and children, UN said. According to the organisation, 70 per cent of victims of trafficking are women, including nearly 20 per cent of minors. 20 per cent of victims are adult men, and the rest are boys.
Every year, millions of people in search of a better life leave the country to earn a living to other states. However, it does not always happen as employers promise. Slavery, trafficking in persons, mistreatment – these and other things can happen to citizens abroad.
Representatives of the most vulnerable groups of people, including migrants and unemployed, are caught in the crime network. The coronavirus pandemic has aggravated their situation even more.
According to the General Prosecutor’s Office of Kyrgyzstan, in 2020, 15 pre-trial cases of trafficking in persons were registered, including 2 cases, which were referred to court, 7 cases, which were dismissed, and 6 cases, which are pending.
In six months of 2021, 4 pre-trial cases of trafficking in persons were registered, including 1 case, which was dismissed, and 3 cases, which are pending.
Keep in mind that the cases were dismissed under article 26 “For absence of a crime and (or) offence in the act”.
What is trafficking in persons, who are at risk, and how can an employee avoid such situations? Let’s figure it out with Zhyldyz Akhmetova, senior programme assistant of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Kyrgyzstan.
The term “trafficking in persons” refers to recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by means of the threat or use of force. There are other forms, as well: coercion, abduction, giving payments.
The purpose of the trafficker is to exploit the victim for own income after the person entered the third country or after he/she moved in the same country (domestic trafficking). The longer the victim is exploited, the more money the trafficker gets.
Trafficking in persons is a crime against the human and his/her basic rights.
Yes, in fact these are the same, as the slavery, or exploitation of a person, is the ultimate goal of human trafficking.
Yes, it depends on the type of exploitation. Exploitation means the coercion of persons to sex work, forced labour, begging, participation in armed conflicts, including by means of debt bondage, material or other dependence, as well as their servitude.
When a person thinks about working abroad, they do not think about trafficking in persons. However, one can end up in a vulnerable situation even having a signed labour contract. Recruiters and traffickers are good psychologists and know what to say and promise to a person to gain their trust and consent to all manipulations.
According to the survey held by IOM in 2015, in 38.6 per cent of cases recruiters were acquaintances of respondents, 33.2 per cent of respondents were recruited by unknown persons who offered well-paid jobs abroad. 8.4 per cent were recruited by friends, and 5 per cent – by relatives.
Men and women aged 18-34 are the main risk group. Often, recruiters pay attention to those who do not have higher or vocational education, need money, search for stable, higher pay, and live in regions with high outflows of migrant workers.
First, you should think about the risks. If you are offered a well-paid job, without giving you the details of what you would be doing, you must consider this. Usually, recruiters promise to pay for transportation, living in good conditions, food, paperwork and procurement of visas. Moreover, everything will be done either free of charge or on credit provided that the person should pay from their first pay check. Often, they do not sign labour contracts with employees, take away their passports, restrict their movement.
To secure yourself, follow the recommendations below:
- Get advice from the information and consultation centre of the Department of External Migration of Foreign Ministry of Kyrgyzstan (migrant.kg);
- Trust only approved and legal/licensed employment agencies;
- Execute all documents in conformity with the law;
- Keep in mind that you can work only under the employment visa in another country;
- Find out the rules of stay in the country of your destination;
- Your family and relatives must know where, how, with whom and why you go there;
- Write down the telephone numbers and addresses of embassies of the Kyrgyz Republic in the country of stay, as well as community-based organisations that can provide help in crisis situations;
- Leave a copy of passport and the recently made photo to your family members. Take a copy of passport with you in case you lose or are deprived of the original. Also, you can scan all necessary documents and save them to your email;
- You can adopt a code word or sentence with your family members for emergencies;
- Do not cross border with illegal documents, such as a fake passport or false visa. Do not stay to work illegally if you have only a travel visa;
- Demand a full contract written in a plain language, and check it thoroughly;
- Learn a few basic words and phrases to ask for help in the language of the country you are going to go to;
- Before you decide to leave abroad, call hotline numbers 1899 or 0800 0000 189 to get an advice.
In this case, law-enforcement bodies, embassies of Kyrgyzstan, missions of International Organisation for Migration in destination countries must provide help.
If you cannot call or your movements are restricted, try to tell your location as soon as possible and ask for help. There have been cases when victims of trafficking in persons asked passers-by, customers, flight attendants, etc. for help. As a rule, these people can tell about you to law-enforcement bodies, or shelter you at their place until help arrives.
Usually, victims of trafficking in persons are exploited in brothels (sexual exploitation, webcam), at closed construction sites, in agriculture, in begging, etc. If you see that a person has bruises, bodily injuries, he/she is psychologically depressed, or, vice versa, overexcited, if he/she is accompanied by someone and threatened with anything, or if you see that the person fears the one who accompanies him/her, you can suggest that the person is in trouble.
Call the hotline number 1899 and tell about it. Also, you should call law-enforcement bodies and tell what you know.
According to the National Referral Mechanism, a person should go to a local department of social protection, where he/she will get social aid or be referred to another state agency for additional information, e.g., medical help, reissue of documents, or provision of temporary housing. Also, there are free of charge hairdresser, welding, dressmaking courses, which will enable the person to earn money in future.
IOM and partner NGOs provide direct help to victims of trafficking, which includes return, rehabilitation and psychological aid, as well as reintegration of survivors.
With resources available, IOM provides assistance in return, rehabilitation (asylum, psychological aid, medical aid) and reintegration (professional courses, grant for income-generating activities). For example, if a person completes dressmaking courses, IOM will help to buy a sewing machine or other necessary equipment. Partner non-governmental organisations (IOM network contains 46 organisations) help the victims of trafficking in persons. The entire process, from identification of a victim of trafficking to social adaptation, usually takes one to three months.
In Kyrgyzstan, according to the existing Code, a recruiter can face two to ten years in prison (Article 171 “Trafficking in persons”, Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic).
In the new Criminal Code, which becomes effective on September 1, 2021, trafficking in persons provides for imprisonment from 3 to 6 years with confiscation of property. If other facts are available (e.g. a group of persons is involved in trafficking in persons, a victim of trafficking is a pregnant woman, or grievous bodily harm was caused to a victim), punishment can increase up to 11 years in prison with confiscation of property.
See also: New Criminal Law of Kyrgyzstan: A Throwback or Efficiency Policy?
Also, the new Criminal Code introduces new article 167 “Child trafficking”. It provides for punishment from five to eight years in prison. If a child was transported abroad, the perpetrators will face 8 to 11 years in prison.
In Kazakhstan, a recruiter can face 4 to 15 years in prison for trafficking in persons (article 128 “Trafficking in persons”, Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan).
The Criminal Code of Uzbekistan provides for imprisonment from 3 to 12 years for trafficking in persons (article 135 “Trafficking in persons”).
In Turkmenistan, a person involved in trafficking in persons can face 4 to 25 years in prison (article 129/1 “Trafficking in persons”).
In Tajikistan, trafficking in persons is punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison (article 130/1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan).
Although the laws of Central Asian states create conditions to fight trafficking in persons, investigation of such cases take a long time. In Criminal Codes of these states, trafficking in persons is recognised as a crime that is subject to imprisonment, but they are mainly committed in the territories of other states. For example, recruitment is carried out in Kyrgyzstan, whereas exploitation and consequences take place in another country.
As a rule, survivors cannot turn to law-enforcement bodies on time and report the crime upon arrival to their home country. Therefore, Kyrgyzstan in its new Code of Criminal Procedure provides for creation of joint investigation and operational groups for pre-trial procedures on crimes committed in several states.
This publication was produced as part of the mentorship programme under the Development of New Media and Digital Journalism in Central Asia project delivered by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) with support from the UK Government. It does not necessarily reflect the official views of IWPR or the UK Government