G/TIP VISIT: COMBATTING TIP ON A HALF TANK OF GAS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 DUSHANBE 001350

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM KTIP KCRM KWMN PGOV SMIG TI
SUBJECT: G/TIP VISIT: COMBATTING TIP ON A HALF TANK OF GAS

REF: A) DUSHANBE 1319; B) DUSHANBE 1263

DUSHANBE 00001350 001.2 OF 005



1. (SBU) SUMMARY: During a November 30 - December 1 visit, G/TIP
Tajikistan desk officer Megan Hall and emboffs met government
officials and representatives of NGOs and IOs to discuss
Tajikistan's progress in addressing trafficking in persons and
forced labor during the cotton harvest. Government officials
outlined numerous Tajik initiatives to Combat TIP, but funding
for the initiatives is limited. Tajik Consuls, the Ministry of
Health, and the Ministry of Interior have directly assisted TIP
victims and investigated cases, but their capacity is limited by
chronic funding shortages and high staff turnover. After the
President's decree banning employment of child labor in the
cotton harvest, schools remained open through the picking
season, unlike in previous years. However, NGOs report that
there have been cases of teachers forcing children to pick
cotton. Local officials have also directed government
employees, including doctors and teachers, to work in the fields
during harvest. Government officials underscored Tajikistan's
commitment to combat TIP and highlighted the President's public
order to end child labor, but denied that any forced labor
problem exists in the country. END SUMMARY



TIP VICTIMS: THERE AND BACK AGAIN




2. (SBU) Russia, and to a lesser degree Kazakhstan, continue to
be the primary destinations for Tajik labor migrants, although
the government is seeking additional labor agreements with
potential destination countries, including Saudi Arabia,
according to IOM Country Director Zeinal Hajiyev. Hajiyev
predicted that these efforts to diversify would be largely
unsuccessful as Tajik migrants are not well placed to compete
for foreign jobs outside the Russian sphere due to lack of
education and language skills. Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Dubai and
the Gulf States remain destinations for Tajik women trafficked
for sexual exploitation. Tajik consuls abroad, particularly in
Dubai, have worked with IOM to identify TIP victims and
facilitate repatriation, although a lack of funding and
resources limit the ability of Tajik overseas missions to assist
victims. (The GOTI expects the Consulate in Dubai to fund its
own operations based on its income from visa fees.) When Tajik
Consuls repatriates TIP victims, IOM pays for the ticket.




3. (SBU) Staff of an IOM-managed, INL-funded shelter for TIP
victims told Hall that they have a productive relationship with
the Tajik Consul in Dubai, who contacts them to arrange
assistance in Dushanbe when repatriating a victim. (These
victims often come to the Consul's attention through raids
conducted by the Dubai police). However, shelter staff report
that the State Committee on National Security (GKNB) immediately
investigates victims at the airport upon their return to
Tajikistan. Because victims first learn of the shelter from the
GKNB, many get the impression that it is affiliated with the
security services and refuse assistance. According to ILO
specialist Firuz Sattarov, many victims also believe if they
stay in the shelter, they will acquire a public stigma as
prostitutes. The shelter assisted 21 victims in 2009 but
currently houses no trafficking victims. Shelter staff want to
meet victims on the airport tarmac to provide guidance before
they encounter security officials. Ideally, victims would first
move into the shelter before any interview with officials takes
place and have the option to refuse the interview entirely. INL
is seeking to extend funding of the shelter until August 2010.
USAID plans to begin a competitive bid process to identify and
fund an implementing partner to run the shelter after INL
funding expires.




4. (SBU) IOM received no reports of abuse of TIP victims by
security officials in 2009. Hajiyev noted that one victim
residing at the shelter was called by the GKNB for an interview
in the middle of the night. IOM intervened and the GKNB agreed
to interview the victim during the day. Hajiev noted that the
GKNB conducts investigations for many types of criminal cases at
night. Lack of sensitivity in working with TIP victims remains
a problem. Many lower-level security officials continue to view
TIP victims as prostitutes, despite numerous training sessions
by IOs, NGOs, and the GOTI. OSCE TIP officer Graziella Piga
reports that when government officials were asked during a
training session how they identify a TIP victim, one Police
Academy Instructor responded, "She wears mascara, high heels,
and a short skirt."




5. (SBU) In addition to Consuls, the Ministry of Health and an
IOM-funded TIP-hotline Victims refer victims to the shelter.

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However, according to Piga, the "national hotline" consists of
the regular office cell phone of one IOM-staffer and the general
phone number of the police. Although the OSCE sponsored the
travel of senior government officials to study referral
mechanisms in Serbia and Macedonia, Inter-Ministerial Commission
Secretary Adham Abdulloyev told Piga that there is no need for a
new referral system as the current system functions well.
Shelter Staff said the Inter-Ministerial Commission advised them
on victims' legal cases, but has not provided the shelter with
monetary or in-kind assistance.




6. (SBU) Hajiyev noted that the Tajik Migration service has
several offices in Russia, but added that many migrants consider
it a police structure rather than a victim-assistance mechanism
because it is under the MVD. He said that it was not clear who
was the government's "main player" on TIP. Although the
Inter-Agency Commission was mandated to manage anti-TIP
activities, the GKNB regularly acted on its own without
coordinating with the MVD; the MVD asked IOM to intervene with
the GKNB to request that it refer more cases to the MVD for
investigation. Hajiyev also expressed appreciation for the
INL-funded TIP training courses IOM provided from June to July

2009. (NOTE: Seven sessions, totaling 200 Tajiks, focused on
practical steps for law enforcement personnel. Attendees
included 84 Ministry of Interior representatives, 20 judges, 38
prosecutors and 11 law students.)



MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS TIP UNIT: OUT OF GAS

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7. (SBU) The MVD's Anti-TIP division is led by Colonel Alikhon
Mulloyev and staffed with 14 officers, with affiliates in all 4
regions of the country. Mulloyev underlined that trafficking in
persons is a major concern to Tajikistan, along with drug and
weapons trafficking. The Unit opened four cases under criminal
article 130.1, Trafficking in Persons, in 2009. (Tajikistan
prosecutes most TIP-related crimes under other statues,
including 130.2, "false recruitment". The GOTI reports 22
prosecutions of TIP-related cases in the first half of 2009).
Mulloyev recognized the sensitivities of working with TIP
victims, adding that he would like to hire additional female
officers to assist victims of sexual exploitation.




8. (SBU) The Unit is limited, however, by poor provision of
funding and resources. Mulloyev said that the Unit appreciated
the training provided by the USG, but that with one government
car assigned for all 14 officers in the country, it was very
difficult for the Unit to investigate cases. The Unit's weekly
fuel allotment for this vehicle is 20 liters of petrol, enough
to fill half a tank. The allotment per operation to pay
informers is 10-50 somoni (2-12 dollars). For any field
investigation, officers must pay transportation costs out of
pocket. There is no computer in Mulloyev's office. Another
challenge is high staff turnover. Only four Unit officers have
been on the job more than two years. Mulloyev asked if the
Embassy could write a diplomatic note asking the Ministry of
Interior to appoint more experienced officers to the Unit and
keep them there.



COTTON: SCHOOL REMAINS OPEN, BUT CASES OF FORCED LABOR CONTINUE

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9. (SBU) G/TIP officer met with representatives of three NGOs,
the Bureau for Human Rights (BHR),Center for Human Rights
(CHR),and Imran, to discuss trafficking and forced labor in the
2009 cotton harvest. All three monitored the use of child and
forced labor in the harvest and will release reports in early

2010. President Rahmon banned the use of child labor in an
April, 2009 decree, and denounced the practice in his national
address. "We didn't think there would be cases of child labor
because of the President's decree," according to BHR Director
Nargis Zokirova, "but children are still being taken out to the
fields. They just do it on the weekend." Unlike in years past,
local officials have not closed schools during the harvest.
While child labor is still employed in many areas, it occurs
outside of school hours.




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10. (SBU) Monitors reported several cases of coercion by school
officials. In the Khatlon region, a teacher told children that
if they did not participate in the cotton harvest, they should
bring in a few kilograms of cotton as their contribution,
according to Zokirova. "Not every family can afford to buy
cotton, so the children had to go out and pick it." Teachers in
the small town of Pakhtabad, near the Uzbek border, told
students that the President ordered them to pick cotton at the
end of the season. They threatened some children with expulsion
if they did not comply. Zokirova said that local administrators
involved in the cotton business are likely acting to protect
their cotton investments. Since many adult men are in Russia,
they continue to illegally conscript child labor and government
employees.




11. (SBU) Imran representatives concurred that the practice of
forced labor still occurs, because "local officials don't get
the message that they are not supposed to compel people. They
didn't gather enough cotton in time, so now they compel
everyone." As the government continues to set region-specific
quotas for cotton cultivation, these officials resort to forced
labor to meet their targets. Imran staff suggested that it is
easy to compel Tajiks to pick cotton, even when there is no
direct threat, because they recall the repercussions for refusal
in years past. Individuals forced to pick cotton do not
complain to the government or NGOs because of the widely held
notion that the work is indeed mandatory. CHR confirmed that
local officials have deployed state employees, including doctors
and teachers, to harvest cotton for 10-15 day periods. NGOs
called for the government to prosecute officials in such cases
to set a precedent that forced/child labor will not be
tolerated. Although authorities prosecuted three teachers for
employing child labor during the 2008 harvest, these cases
received little media attention.




12. (SBU) On a positive note, the government's 2008 "Freedom to
Farm" decree, which called for allowing farmers to plant any
crop they wished, may have contributed to the estimated 20% drop
in land used for cotton production in 2009. Overall, the use of
forced child labor is down from past years due to the official
ban. IOM's request to monitor the 2009 cotton harvest and
verify implementation of President Rahmon's ban on employment of
forced child labor finally received government approval in
mid-November, according to IOM Country Director Hajiyev, but
this approval at the tail end of the season was too late for IOM
to deploy a monitoring mission. IOM will try to reach an
agreement with the Tajik government to begin monitoring next
year from the start of the harvest. INL will coordinate with
IOM to discuss possible USG funding of this initiative.



TIP COMMISSION: LET'S TALK ABOUT TIP, BUT NO FORCED LABOR HERE

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13. (SBU) In a 45 minute introductory statement, Adham
Abdulloyev, secretary of the TIP commission and member of the
President's apparatus, told Hall that President Rahmon made TIP
a top priority, and outlined Tajikistan's efforts to combat TIP,
most of them rhetorical. Tajikistan has ratified over 20
conventions regarding TIP and labor issues, created the
22-member Inter-Agency Commission, facilitated TIP training of
12 Afghans by NGO "Imran" at Tajik National University (TNU),is
creating a course on TIP at TNU (with support from IOM and INL),
facilitated training of 220 officials in 2009 (conducted by IOM,
OSCE, and NGOs),issued a 37-page report on the government's
anti-TIP efforts, and is establishing a new database to compile
statistics on TIP cases.




14. (SBU) Hall advised Abdulloyev that G/TIP is closely
following developments in three areas: government complicity in
trafficking, level of victim-access to assistance, and the use
of forced labor in the cotton harvest. On government
complicity, Abdulloyev said that "our President is seriously
addressing the issue. If such a case occurs, the offender is
immediately punished. A special body overseas the activities of
government employees. So far this year there has not been such
a case, but once reported, such cases will be thoroughly
investigated."




15. (SBU) On victim access to assistance, Abdulloyev noted that
there are currently USG-funded, IOM-managed, shelters in

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Dushanbe and Khujand. The Tajik government hopes to build
additional shelters "when the economic situation improves." The
Ministry of Health established eight support rooms to provide
medical and psychological support for victims of TIP and
domestic violence. Abdulloyev said that the Commission will
include statistics on victims assisted by the Ministry of Health
in its next report.




16. (SBU) On forced labor during the cotton harvest, Abdulloyev
reiterated the President's ban and the Ministry of Education's
decree banning the practice. He said that the President has
directly relayed the order to local officials via phone. He
admitted that officials used forced child labor until "two or
three years ago", but not this year and said that there is "no
problem" with the IOM monitoring the harvest in 2010. Poloff
noted that there continue to be reports of forced child and
adult labor, despite the President's ban. Abdulloyev said that
all labor in the cotton fields is voluntary as "in eastern
countries there are traditions for the whole community to come
together. If someone is forced or threatened with
administrative punishment, these cases will be prosecuted, but
we haven't heard of such cases." He said that additional
information on the fall harvest would be included in the 2009
report and declared "we are in favor of open and direct
communication (with the USG)."




17. (SBU) In a separate meeting with the members of the TIP
Commission, including first Deputy Foreign Minister Yuldashev
(Reftel A) and Deputies of the Ministry of Justice, GKNB, and
MVD, Hall raised the same concerns of government complicity,
victims access, and forced labor. Commission members said that
there have been no cases of official involvement in trafficking
in 2009. Yuldashev said that Tajik media would have reported
such cases and claimed that "our government agencies don't hide
anything." (NOTE: In the Russian language newspaper "Business
and Politics", there have been reports of forced adult labor in
Khatlon and Sughd). He concluded, "I must say that complicity
of government officials has not been detected... Maybe because
of poor performance of our law agencies and maybe because it
actually didn't happen."




18. (C) Yuldashev declared that forced labor did not occur in
the cotton sector because "we didn't pick any cotton this year.
What is 253,000 tons? In the Soviet days, we picked one
million! This year we didn't force anyone because there was no
cotton to pick, but if someone wanted to voluntarily participate
they could do it for good money." Yuldashev concluded that the
problem was not forced labor in the cotton sector, but not
enough cotton grown. "We must grow cotton. It is our wealth.
If we could produce one million tons of cotton again, everyone
would have work and there would be no trafficking in persons.
Some people my age think that someone is against Tajik cotton,
maybe a competitor." GKNB and MVD Deputy Ministers said that
there were no cases of local officials forcing individuals to
pick cotton. Yuldashev declared that "forced labor is not a
problem in Tajikistan" and directed his staff to re-circulate
the Ministry of Education's directive on child labor to local
officials. He said that the reports of forced adult labor in
Sughd and Khatlon was "bad information." None of the Commission
members, including Yuldashev, were aware of the IOM's proposal
to monitor the 2010 harvest, or the government's apparent
approval of the monitoring.




19. (SBU) On assistance to TIP victims, Yuldashev said "the
government would work with this category of victims according to
our financial ability. We don't hide the phenomena of
trafficking of our women or pretend that everything is fine.
Security officials ensure that when victims return they are not
re-victimized" (apparently referring to allegations made in 2007
by three victims who claimed to have been assaulted by GKNB
officers). Yuldashev repeated the government's commitment to
combat TIP and engage the USG on TIP initiatives. Hall
expressed appreciation for the GOTI's actions to combat TIP, but
reminded Yuldashev that the USG is interested in real
implementation of Tajikistan's anti-TIP policies, including
identification of victims and vigorous prosecution of both
traffickers and officials employing forced labor.




20. (SBU) COMMENT: High-level GOTI officials consistently
respond positively to engagement by the Embassy, particularly
INL, on anti-trafficking projects and consistently argue that,
given Tajikistan's budgetary difficulties, the government has
exerted considerable political will towards combating TIP. At

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the working level, government efforts are often hamstrung by the
insensitivity of security officials, lack of resolve to
prosecute officials, and a lack of funds. High-level officials
do not consider forced labor during the cotton harvest a TIP
issue, but the government has made an effort to reduce the use
of forced child labor through public decrees, though it is clear
that some local officials continue to pressure children and
adults to pick cotton. The denials by members of the TIP
Commission that such practices occur underlines the need to
encourage the government to allow the IOM to monitor the 2010
harvest from the start of the season. A more complete picture
of forced labor during the 2009 harvest will be available after
NGOs release their monitoring reports. END COMMENT
QUAST