UZBEKISTAN: UPDATE ON TIP AND LABOR MIGRATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 001380 DEPT FOR SCA, DRL, AND G/TIP DRL/ILCSR FOR ALFRED ANZALDUA, G/TIP FOR MEGAN HALL, SCA FOR JESSICA MAZZONE AND BRIAN RORAFF E.O. 12958: DECL: 2018-11-24 TAGS: PHUM ECON ELAB KCRM KWMN PGOV PREL SOCI KZ UZ SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN: UPDATE ON TIP AND LABOR MIGRATION REF: a) TASHKENT 987; TASHKENT 1226; TASHKENT 1227; 07 TASHKENT 1302 CLASSIFIED BY: FITZMAURICE, RICHARD G; (B),(D) ¶1. (C) Summary: In a November 22 article, BBC Monitoring reported that Uzbekistan's state-controlled media has launched a human trafficking awareness campaign, which tracks with poloff's observation that over the past few months, human rights-related articles have appeared in the state-controlled press on almost a daily basis. Separately, a Kazakh journalist reported that fewer Uzbek labor migrants are traveling to southern Kazakhstan as the region's construction sector has slowed, while the government reported that over a thousand Uzbeks have received permits to work legally in Russia since the signing of bilateral labor migration agreements between Russia and Uzbekistan last year. End summary. TIP CAMPAIGN CONTINUING IN UZBEK MEDIA -------------- ¶2. (U) Trafficking-in-persons (TIP) remains a hot topic in Uzbek government-controlled media (ref A). On November 22, BBC Monitoring Central Asia issued a report entitled "Uzbek Media Launch Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign," which noted that the "Uzbek media have been observed to publish a lot of reports about human trafficking of late" and that a "campaign against human trafficking has been stepped up" following the release in October of a report on human trafficking by the Prosecutor General's Office (ref B). ¶3. (U) The BBC Monitoring report referenced several specific articles that have appeared in the government-controlled media over the past month, including: a November 22 article in the Na Postu newspaper about a meeting police officers held at a Tashkent university to warn students about the dangers of human trafficking; a November 21 broadcast on Uzbek TV on illegal labor migrants who died after being trafficked to Russia; a November 21 article in the Jamiyat newspaper which, quoting a judge from Jizzakh province, stated that three individuals had recently stood trial for trafficking Uzbek citizens to Kazakhstan; a November 21 article in the Xalq Sozi newspaper which reported that an individual in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan was recently sentenced to five years' imprisonment for trafficking Uzbek citizens to Kazakhstan; and a November 14 article in the Narodnoye Slovo newspaper which reported that criminal cases have recently been launched against 19 suspected human traffickers in Surkhundarya province. ¶4. (U) In addition to the articles specifically mentioned in the BBC Monitoring report, poloff has seen numerous other human trafficking-related articles in the government press. By poloff's own estimate, over the past few months, such articles have appeared on almost a daily basis. FEWER UZBEK MIGRANTS REPORTEDLY HEADING TO KAZAKHSTAN -------------- -------------- ¶5. (C) On November 18, poloff met at the Embassy with former Ezgulik human rights group activist Botir Norbaev, who now works as a journalist for the Uzbek-language "Sayrom Savosi" newspaper in the town of Sayrom in southern Kazakhstan. In addition to his journalism, Norbaev also works with the Seni Sezim anti-trafficking NGO in Chimkent to hand out pamphlets at border points to Uzbek labor migrants explaining their rights. Norbaev observed that fewer Uzbeks appeared to be heading to southern Kazakhstan now that the region's economy has begun to cool. He explained that previously many Kazakh families in the region hired Uzbek labor migrants to build private homes that were purchased on credit, but it was now becoming more difficult for Kazakhs to receive such credit. As a result, construction was slowing in the region and it is becoming more difficult for Uzbek labor migrants to find work. ¶6. (C) In addition, Norbaev reported that economic woes in southern Kazakhstan were hardening attitudes towards both labor migrants from Uzbekistan and ethnic Uzbeks permanently residing in southern Kazakhstan. He claimed that Kazakh "chauvinism" in the region was on the rise, and reported several incidences near Sayrom in which ethnic Uzbeks were attacked by ethnic Kazakhs after false rumors were spread of Uzbeks raping Kazakh girls (Comment: We are unable to verify these reports. End comment.) 2007 LABOR AGREEMENT WITH RUSSIA COMES INTO FORCE -------------- -------------- ¶7. (U) In July 2007, Uzbekistan signed bilateral labor migration agreements with Russia, which reportedly increased protections on a range of labor rights for Uzbek migrants and allowed them to receive permits to work legally in Russia through the Uzbek Labor Ministry's Agency on External Labor Migration (ref D). Recently, state-controlled media reported that as of September of this year, over a thousand Uzbek citizens have received work permits under the agreement to work in agriculture and construction in several different regions of Russia, including Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Omsk, Murmansk, Ufa, Rostov, Saratov, Belgorod, and Vladimir (Comment: Of course, this is only a small percentage of the more than one million Uzbeks estimated to be working in Russia illegally. End comment.) State-controlled media also reported that the External Labor Migration Agency has enabled over 3,000 Uzbek citizens to receive permits to work in South Korea and that that the Tashkent Employment Bureau has reached an agreement with Poland enabling Uzbek citizens to legally work in the country's construction sector. NORLAND