KAZAKHSTAN: TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS CASES IN JANUARY

UNCLAS ASTANA 000355 SIPDIS STATE FOR INL/AAE (BUHLER),G/TIP, SCA/CEN (O'MARA) SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SOCI KCRM PREL KZ SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS CASES IN JANUARY ¶1. Summary: The following is a summary of media reports on human trafficking cases from local newspapers in January 2008. End summary. -------------- SEXUAL EXPLOITATION -------------- ¶2. The January 12 edition of Express-K and January 17 edition of Yuridicheskaya Gazeta published articles about a sixteen year-old girl and a seventeen year-old girl trafficked to Uzbekistan for further transportation to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for purposes of sexual exploitation. The parents of the girls reported their disappearance to police in August 2007. Three days later one of the girls sent a text message to her parents asking for help and explaining that they were being held in Tashkent for further transportation abroad. ¶3. During the investigation, the police determined that the one of the traffickers was the mother of a friend of the girls, who promised them a lucrative job in Almaty. As proof, the woman showed the girls photos of her successful daughter. The woman confessed to the police that she and a friend recruited the girls. She explained that she and her friend's daughters had been trafficked to the UAE and that they were sending the girls in exchange for the release of their daughters. Police later found a Western Union receipt for $250 from the UAE. A criminal case was initiated under the trafficking in minors article of the criminal code. The case is under investigation and further details will be reported septel. ¶4. Kazinform reported on January 18 that police officers of the organized crime department in Astana freed three young women who had been kidnapped from Torgai village and transported to Astana, where they were held hostage for sexual exploitation. A criminal case was initiated against two suspects accused of illegal deprivation of freedom for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The case is under investigation. -------------- CHILD LABOR -------------- ¶5. In the January 19 edition of Liter, it was reported that a twelve-year old girl and a thirteen-year old girl were rescued by Almaty police and returned home. In 2006, their mother brought them from Kyrgyzstan to Malybai to work in the tobacco fields. In Malybai, their mother physically abused them and she sold them to someone else six months later. In March 2007, their mother returned to Kyrgyzstan and promised to bring more laborers back to the tobacco fields. The girls were repatriated by the Kyrgyz authorities. ¶6. Karavan published an article about a seventeen year-old boy from an orphanage who died while cleaning fuel tanks. According to the investigation, a former assistant tutor at the Valihanov orphanage was paid $120 by a local entrepreneur to clean and paint a 50 cubic meter fuel tank. The tutor assigned the job to two of his students, one of whom fainted soon after getting into the container. He never regained consciousness. ¶7. Other children from the orphanage reported that it was normal practice to be assigned such jobs. Police found a roster listing the children's names and jobs they had performed, such as collecting hay, chopping firewood, planting, gardening, or cleaning. The case is under investigation. ORDWAY