It is not a secret any more that a great part of male population of Uzbekistan, mainly from rural areas, annually leave their homes and families and travel mostly to Russia and Kazakhstan in search of money for living. All are driven by the same factor - financial. The money and the food they get at home working in the fields that belong to the government is not enough for living. Living in foreign countries, they have to work on the jobs, where the local population does not want to work - backbreaking, unhealthy and underpaid jobs at construction sites, fields and in the streets as cleaning man. Only happy ones get jobs in the markets, plants and firms, where the working conditions are more or less bearable. Doing a “black labor”, as they call it so, the gastarbeiters (guest workers) have to live in barracks, where the hygiene conditions are very poor. Lucky ones rent apartments. But they have to live there say 10 people in one room apartment. And these are not the only problems the gastarbeiters face working abroad.

Due to their poor knowledge of legal systems of the countries where they work, the migrant workers do not register themselves in the places where they live. They also do not make legal contracts with employers, but work on oral agreement. Thus, they make themselves easy targets for different fraudsters. Recently, I have met two people, citizen of Uzbekistan, who have been in Russia as migrant workers two years ago - in 2005. Their story nearly shocked me. Working for half a year at a construction site near Moscow, they were not paid for their work, but instead were sold to another person, who later made them work in construction of his dacha. They were not paid, but worked for food. They had to work even on cold days during winter. While telling me the story, they were were joking saying that ‘the Russian cold that made fascist troops give up during the World War II could not defeat them’. There are hundreds of other stories like this, when migrant workers from Uzbekistan were cheated by employers, beaten or even killed by skinheads, or badly treated by local law enforcement bodies.

Migrant workers, whose quantity is rising from year to year, annually bring great amounts of money to the countries budget. The government officials are aware of this fact. Therefore, it would be very effective if the Uzbek government have developed an efficient program to help its citizen working abroad. Understanding that they will be protected by their country, the migrant workers would work on a normal jobs and get paid more, thus sending more money back home.

The Rapid Response Group made a report on migrant workers telling about the obstacles they face working in foreign countries. Even though it covers only one case, it clearly portraits the real situation.

INFORMATIONAL REPORT: GROUP OF LABOR MIGRANTS FROM UZBEKISTAN FORCED TO WORK FOR KAZAKHSTANI CITIZEN

Authors of the report and commentary: Shukhrat Ganiev, Sukhrobjon Ismoilov and Abdusalom Ergashev, members of the RRG

According to interview with the citizens of Uzbekistan – the labor migrants who travel on trains through the Republic of Kazakhstan many interesting aspects of the modern slavery business were found out. In this slavery business the goods are passengers of the trains – the citizens of Uzbekistan, and the sellers are some representatives of the law enforcement bodies of Kazakhstan [in the beginning of January 2008 the RRG conducted interviews with 11 Uzbek labor migrants who have recently come back from Russia to Uzbekistan, and 1 conductor of train # 381 Ufa (Russia) – Tashkent. The RRG has changed the real names of some respondents who are quoted below as they have disagreed that their names were openly mentioned in this report. Many interviewed Uzbek labor migrants travel to Russia and neighboring Kazakhstan on a regular basis. It was found out that they are afraid of revenge from the side of the infringers of their rights if they dare to report about the cases of human rights violations. Because of the same reason the interviewed train conductor has also disagreed to mention his name in any public report].

So, according to the train conductor of train # 381 Ufa - Tashkent, on November 12th 2007, during the next check of documents by a squad of transport police at railway station Aktjuba (the Republic of Kazakhstan) a man by name Ergash from Khiva city, Khorezm region of Uzbekistan was made by the Kazakhstani transport police officers get out of the train. The Kazakhstani transport police has explained that they have ostensibly found out some discrepancy in Ergash’s passport. Despite indignation of the owner of the passport who has already undergone border and customs checks while entering the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kazakhstani transport police has removed Ergash from the train, saying they need to check his passport more thoroughly.

The train conductor (of the train # 381 Ufa – Tashkent) was hit by surprise when in approximately a month he saw Ergash again at same railway station Aktjuba. The same police officers who removed him from the train a month ago put him into the train.

According to Ergash having removed him from the train the transport police submitted Erghash to the hands of a man by name Kasim. Kasim took Ergash to a mini-bus in which he met 8 passengers of the train – all citizens of Uzbekistan, labor migrants returning from Russia. As it had turned out later all of them were removed from the train by the Kazakhstani transport police officers. Kasim brought 8 citizens of Uzbekistan who to the suburbs of Aktjuba.

Those 8 citizens of Uzbekistan, including Ergash, were forced to fulfill different types of tasks in a construction of Kasim’s building in the suburbs of the city. They were forced to work just for food and place to live, they were not paid. Their passports were seized. According to Ergash Kasim has prearranged everything with the transport police of railway station Aktjuba. He on a regular basis used to accept from the hands of the Kazakhstani transport police the Uzbek passengers of the trains following through Kazakhstan and coming back from Russia. Those passengers were made to get out of the trains for some ostensibly found failures or discrepancies in their passports. Kasim used to take those citizens of Uzbekistan to various types of construction works to different construction sites around Aktjuba. He seized their passports, held them in a locked building and forced them to carry out various types of construction works, providing them only with meal and a place to live.

Thus, forcing the Uzbek citizens to work on construction works for some time Kasim then with the help of the same transport police officers placed them into the trains returning from Russia to Uzbekistan. Kasim paid off with the police officers who helped him openly at the same place at railway station. According to his confident self-behavior and communication with the police officers it can be seen that he feels protected and safe.

The Uzbek labor migrants who have gotten back to the train were glad that they have been disposed of slavery and would be at home country very soon. No one of them have thought of bringing the offenders – the organizers of human trafficking to responsibility. When the RRG suggested to them to submit official appeals and complaints on the actions of the offenders and slaveholders to the law enforcement bodies of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, they refused. Their answers to such suggestions were “Who we are in Kazakhstan…who cares?”, “We have still to travel through Kazakhstan many times in the future, we are lucky, we are glad to return home”.

The RRG’s commentary on the situation:

There are many questions to the representatives of law enforcement bodies of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In particular, are the employees of the Kazakhstani transport police attached to one of the intermediary railway stations eligible to check the Uzbek train passengers if those passengers have already undergone checks by the Kazakhstani or Russian customs bodies and bodies of border control? Unfortunately, the issue of legitimacy of similar checks of citizens of sovereign Uzbekistan traveling on trains through the territories of the neighboring states by their law enforcement bodies have not found precise and clear formulation in the regional (accepted within the CIS) and bilateral intergovernmental agreements and treaties [Convention of the CIS on legal aid and legal relations on civil, family and criminal cases, Decision of the CIS on the Program of cooperation of the States-Parties of the Commonwealth of Independent States in fighting illegal migration for years 2006 - 2008 and Decision of the CIS on the Program of cooperation of the States-Parties of the Commonwealth of Independent States in fighting human trafficking for years 2007 - 2010]. The RRG calls on the corresponding official bodies of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to reconsider similar intergovernmental regulations in order to provide effective protection of the Uzbek citizens from cases of arbitrary violations.

The RRG’s monitoring shows that the Uzbek labor migrants returning from Russia to Uzbekistan on the train following the territories of Kazakhstan are subjected to different types of offences from the side of the Kazakhstani law enforcement authorities. The Uzbek labor migrants following by trains from Uzbekistan to Russia are not exposed to such offences. We yet haven’t managed to establish the exact reason of such tendency. We can assume that one of the main reasons for this could be a problem of corruption and anticipation by the police employees that the labor migrant who is coming back from Russia must have a lot of money with him. The possible stamp on the passport of the labor migrant mentioning his deportation from Russia for infringement of passport or other established local rules can become another formal reason of check from the side of the police employee in the territory of Kazakhstan. However, the situation itself when the Kazakhstani police checks infringements in the passport of the citizen of Uzbekistan who is traveling on the Uzbek train raises many questions on legitimacy of the powers of this police personnel to take such action.

Selective interviews with the labor migrants have also shown that the attitude of the Uzbek labor migrants to choosing the place of permanent residence starts to change. So, from 11 interviewed Uzbek labor migrants 8 returned to Uzbekistan in order to take his family to Russia with further purpose of permanent resettlement in Russia. In total one year ago our interviews showed that the most part of labor migrants from Uzbekistan used to work in Russia or Kazakhstan on a seasonal mode, usually during warm and hot seasons, and come back home as a rule to spend winter.

The RRG has also fixed still weak but clear tendency in the order of spending the money earned by the Uzbek labor migrants. Only 7 from 11 interviewed labor migrants have recently sent their money from Russia to their families in Uzbekistan, the others have firmly decided to invest their earned money in various types of small business in Russia. Rise in prices for the basic food products, living costs and non-profitable investment in small and medium businesses in Uzbekistan have stimulated such decision by the labor migrants.

The RRG thinks that such tendency can shortly change the standard picture and reduce to a minimum the import of the money of the Uzbek labor migrants to in hard currency from Russia to Uzbekistan. Thereof in Uzbekistan where the labor migrants are considered as a unique source of existence for thousands and thousands of families negative consequences can be expected. This tendency can also specify the beginning of the process of more strengthened resettlement of the increasing number of the population of Uzbekistan of reproductive age to Russia and neighboring Kazakhstan.

January 15th 2008

Tashkent, Uzbekistan