Uzbekistan
has one of the poorest records in the region on addressing human trafficking. The
US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2013 states that due
to a lack of “significant efforts to comply” with the minimum standards set
forth in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, passed by the US Congress in
2000, Uzbekistan has been recently downgraded to the lowest tier, three, after
being on the tier two watch list for the last six years (Russia was also
recently downgraded for the same reason). Within this report, it is also
mentioned that “the Government of Uzbekistan remains one of only a handful of
governments around the world that subjects its citizens to forced labor through
implementation of state policy.” However, the government of Uzbekistan denies
that forced labor exists in the country. I found this very interesting and pursued
it further.[1]
The
International Labor Organization defines forced labor as “work or service
exacted from a person under threat or penalty, which includes penal sanctions
and the loss of rights and privileges, where the person has not offered
him/herself voluntarily.”[2]
In Uzbekistan the issue is centered on the cotton harvest. The Uzbek economy is
heavily dependent on cotton, and has its roots in the mid-1800s with attempts
by the Russian Empire to develop a source of cotton not dependent on the United
States. While Tashkent has attempted to diversify crops since independence,
agriculture is still focused on cotton production. Uzbekistan is currently the
world's fifth largest cotton exporter and sixth largest producer.[3]
Agriculture itself provides employment for around one-third of overall
employment.[4]
Several factors have been
attributed to the current reliance on forced labor during the cotton harvest.
Critically, there is a limited window that farmers have to harvest their crop,
generally from September through October. To bring in the harvest farmers have also
had to deal with the “demechanization” of the harvest in Uzbekistan that has
resulted in a heavy reliance on manual labor. Moreover, this reliance is constrained
by the increase in labor out-migration to countries such as Russia. However,
the main driver has been the structure of the national economy and direct
involvement of the government. The Uzbek government, “despite a number of
high-profile reforms”, has continued a command economy approach reminiscent of
the Soviet-era. Quotas are established and demanded of cotton farmers and
prices are set artificially low for the cotton produced. Prices have been historically
set below the world market price, making it difficult for farmers to attract
labor with decent pay.[5]
The government’s precise role in cotton
production is murky. Uzbek farmers are required to sell their quota to a
state-controlled company (Uzkhlopkoprom) that operates all of Uzbekistan's
cotton gins. Uzkhlopkoprom itself is 51 percent owned by the national
government; however, the owners of the remaining 49 percent are officially
unknown but “investigative reports by journalists and human rights groups
suggest the privately held shares are controlled by [President] Karimov's
political allies and their relatives.”[6]
The lack of harvest machinery is
also relatively puzzling. A teacher from the Karauzyak district was quoted
exclaiming, “In the Soviet Union our kolkhoz was among the leaders by machine
collection, 80 percent of the harvest was collected by machines. Now there is
not a single combine in entire Karakalpakstan!”[7]
A 35 percent drop in cotton production since 1991 could be attributed to a lack
of modern agriculture machinery.[8]
In 2005, the Uzbek Agriculture Ministry stated that 10 percent of the harvest
that year had been collected by combines, which was down from 20 percent in
2000. Sources quote farmers who claim that there is a large shortage of
agricultural machinery, such as tractors and combines. This may be due to a
significant drop in production, from 35,000 to 2,000 tractors per year in 2007,
at the Soviet-era Tashkent Tractor Plant and Tashkent Agricultural Vehicles
Plant.[9]
In 2009 the government started a program to reequip several agricultural
machinery production plants, but machinery still remains hard to come by. Even
if machinery is located, fuel and repairs can be prohibitively expensive for
many farmers. [10]
Internationally, there has been
push back against the forced labor of children in Uzbekistan. The issue of child
labor in the cotton harvest has not been limited to Uzbekistan. It has also
been widely reported in Tajikistan, but appears to not take precedence over
schooling there.[11] Intense
lobbying by international NGO’s led to 25 Western retail companies boycotting
the use of Uzbek cotton in 2010. In response, a decree was issued by the Uzbek
government for the 2012 cotton harvest that banned school children up to 15
years of age being used as labor. The government has also made the argument
that “cotton picking was in the context of family farms, and as such did not
count as child labor but was in line with generally recognized family values
and traditions of Uzbek society that supported the participation of elder
children in creating the family well-being.”[12]
A UNICEF report on the 2012 harvest confirmed that children under the age of 15
were not seen picking cotton.[13]
However, additional reports claim that the government has pushed for greater participation
from other age groups to fill the gap.[14]
The labor shortage has led to
increased demand for participation across many sectors of the Uzbek economy. An
estimated “16% of all government employees, including doctors, nurses and other
essential service providers” and “60% of educators from each school were sent
out of the classrooms to pick cotton.”[15]
Additional reports describe instances where “bus and city shuttle passengers
heading out of town have been redirected to the fields. Public transport
drivers say that buses and city shuttles leaving Tashkent are often “rolled
off” to the cotton fields.”[16]
Even the military has not been spared, “These days the soldiers in the fields of
Kasan district pick cotton” and “the soldiers of the Termez unit also work in
cotton fields.”[17]
It is possible for civilians called up to exempt themselves by paying for the
daily quota they would have been expected to pick, or by paying another to take
their spot. 2012-2013 prices have ranged from 12,000 Uzbekistani soms ($5.50)
for a daily quota, to 250,000 ($116) for a doctor in Jizzakh to buy a full
exemption or 500,000 soms ($232) for a teacher to pay another to take 25 days
of assigned duty. A significant cost for workers whose pay “does not often go
above 12,000 per day.”[18]
These workers are ‘forced’ to
participate through several methods. Provincial mayors and governors are held
personally responsible for meeting quota requirements in their districts, and
they in turn pressure local officials to organize labor in the fields. [19]
Arrangements are made between farmers and schools to get children over the age
of 15 and college students into the fields. A “call to patriotic duty, peer
pressure, visits to families” are used, but if necessary they have “punitive
measures” available. Payment is then made to the school directly, who disburses
it to the students.[20]
There are a few reports of residents being forced to pick cotton without
receiving compensation, albeit low, but this appears to be atypical. Punitive
measures are reported to be threats to take away electricity, retirement
payments, childcare benefits, or even employment. [21]
To monitor participation it appears that passport numbers, official residence
registration details, phone numbers and a photograph are collected by
officials. [22] In
the fields, there have even been reports of men in military uniforms acting as “supervisors”
to ensure quotas are met. [23]
[1] US
State Department, Trafficking in Persons Report 2013, available at: http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2013/
[2] Ruwanpara, Kanchana and Pallavi Rai.
2004. Forced Labor: Definitions, Indicators and Measurements.
International Labor Organization, Geneva. Available at: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---declaration/documents/publication/wcms_081991.pdf
[3] CIA
World Factbook. 2013. Central Intelligence Agency. Available at: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uz.html
[4] School
of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of London. 2010. What Has Changed?
Progress in Eliminating the Use of Forced Child Labour in the Cotton Harvests
of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Centre for Contemporary Central Asia and the
Caucasus, University of London. Available at: http://www.cottoncampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2011_SOAS_WhatHasChanges.pdf
[5] Ibid;
Trafficking in Persons Report 2013
[6]
Synovitz, Ron. 2013. For Exploited Uzbek Farmers, High Cotton Prices Only
Enrich Overlords. RFE/RL. Available at:
[7] Ferghana
News. 2009. Uzbekistan: News from the Fields. Ferghana News Information
Agency. Available at: http://enews.fergananews.com/articles/2581
[8] CIA
World Factbook
[9] UZNews.
2007. Uzbek Cotton Industry Based on Manual Labor. UZNews.net. Available
at: http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&sub=&cid=2&nid=2226
[10]
UZNews. 2007. Uzbekistan to Revive Production of Outdated Cotton Combines. UZNews.net.
Available at: http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&cid=2&nid=11831
[11] School
of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of London, 2010.
[12] Ibid.
[13] UZNews.
2013. UNICEF Did Not See Children Picking Cotton in Uzbekistan.
UZNews.net. Available at: http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&cid=30&nid=23900
[14] Ferghana
News. 2012. Uzbekistan: Parents Sent to the Cotton Fields Instead of their Children.
Ferghana News Information Agency. Available at: http://enews.fergananews.com/articles/2776
[16] Ferghana
News. 2012. Uzbekistan: Parents Sent to the Cotton Fields Instead of their Children
[17] Ferghana
News. 2009. Uzbekistan: News from the Fields
[18]Ferghana
News. 2012. Uzbekistan: Parents Sent to the Cotton Fields Instead of their Children;
[18]
UZNews. 2013. Cotton Pickers in Angren on the Fields with a Badge. UZNews.net.
Available at: http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&cid=2&nid=23810;
UZNews. 2013. Doctors, Artists and Railway Workers – All are Cotton Pickers
in Jizzakh Province. UZNews.net. Available at: http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&cid=2&nid=23937
[19] Trafficking
in Persons Report 2013
[20] School
of Oriental and Asian Studies, University of London, 2010.
[21] UZNews.
2013. Residents in Zaaminskiy Forced to Pick Cotton for Free. UZNews.net.
Available at: http://www.uznews.net/news_single.php?lng=en&cid=2&nid=23795
[22] UZNews.
2013. Cotton Pickers in Angren on the Fields with a Badge.
[23] Ferghana
News. 2012. Uzbekistan: Parents Sent to the Cotton Fields Instead of their Children
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