Cablegate: Uzbekistan: Submission for 10th Annual Trafficking In

VZCZCXRO6008
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHPW RUEHSK RUEHVK
RUEHYG
DE RUEHNT #0097/01 0601238
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 250911Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY TASHKENT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1927
INFO ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
CIS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 18 TASHKENT 000097

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
G/TIP
G-LAURA PENA
SCA/RA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM ELAB PGOV KTIP KMCA UZ
SUBJECT: Uzbekistan: Submission for 10th Annual Trafficking in
Persons Report

REF: 10 STATE 2094; 09 STATE 196

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A. (U) Per reftel, post submits the following information for
the tenth annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. The
information covers the period from February 2009 to mid-February
2010.

B. (U) Embassy Tashkent's TIP point of contact is:

Holly Lindquist Thomas

Pol/Econ Officer

Tel: (998-71) 120-5450

Fax: (998-71) 120-6335

E-mail: ThomasHL@state.gov

C. (U) The number of hours spent on preparation of this
report:

P/E officers: 52

USAID: 1

PAS: 2

Responses to Paragraph 25: The Country's TIP Situation

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A. Sources of information on human trafficking include: the
Government of Uzbekistan (GOU), the International Organization for
Migration (IOM), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC), USAID, local TIP-focused NGOs, and local press reports.
These are reliable sources, and they adequately document TIP issues
in Uzbekistan.

B. Uzbekistan is primarily a source country for trafficking in
persons. The government's Center for the Study of Public Opinion
(Ijtimoiy Fikr) published a study in November stating that 78.3
percent of trafficking victims are involved in labor exploitation
(62.9 percent in the construction sector, 15.4 percent in the
agricultural sector) and 14.7 percent are involved in sexual
exploitation. Most female victims of sexual exploitation were
trafficked to the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Russia,
Thailand, Turkey, India, Israel, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan.
There are more limited reports of sex trafficking to Indonesia and
China. There have been no significant changes to destination
countries since last year's TIP report submission.

Men are mainly trafficked to Kazakhstan and Russia for the purpose
of forced labor. Labor trafficking victims originate from all over
the country, but in especially high numbers from Karakalpakstan,
Surkhandarya, and the Ferghana Valley. (Note: The prosecutor of
northwestern Karakalpakstan reported to the press in November that
the human trafficking rate increased by 36.7 percent in
Karakalpakistan during the first 10 months of 2009, with 82 labor
trafficking cases, 22 more than the same period in 2008. A
regional police officer reported to the press in September that in
the Ferghana region, 60 cases of human trafficking were initiated
in the first eight months of 2009.) Victims of sex trafficking
more often come from the cities of Tashkent, Bukhara, and
Samarkand.

Internal trafficking also occurs, with men and women generally
being trafficked from rural to urban areas for sexual or labor
exploitation. Internal trafficking takes place in the agricultural
sector, the construction industry, the domestic service industry,

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and in other forms of unskilled labor. In order to work legally in
a particular region or city, a citizen must register with the local
administration and obtain a permission stamp in his or her
passport. Those living and working in a city without that stamp are
doing so illegally and are subject to fines, jail time, and removal
from the city. Traffickers are known to withhold pay and
or/identification documents and to threaten to inform police of
people who are working illegally.

The leading anti-trafficking NGO during the first nine months of
the year registered 617 cases of human trafficking, involving 371
female victims and 247 male victims, compared to 529 cases in 2008
and 659 cases in 2007. The NGO registered a total of 778 victims
for the whole calendar year of 2009, including 485 female and 293
male. The government stated that the total number of trafficking
victims was 4,660, including 4,016 men and 644 women.

Forced labor of both adults and children occurs throughout the
country during the fall cotton harvest, due in large part to a
rigid quota system that demands that each local unit produce a set
amount of cotton. In order to meet the quota, local officials
frequently close schools and send the children to the fields to
pick cotton. Reports over the past two years suggest that this
practice is concentrated in the ninth through twelfth grades, but
in some rural areas even primary schools are closed so that
children may assist in the harvest. Government workers, including
teachers, medical personnel, and local bureaucrats are also sent to
work in the cotton fields during the fall harvest, and there was
anecdotal evidence that this practice was used in the 2009 harvest
more extensively than in the past, perhaps because fewer children
were utilized. There are no reliable estimates on the number of
victims of forced labor during the cotton harvest.

C. (U) Both labor and sex trafficking victims are generally
subjected to poor living conditions once they arrive in the
destination countries. One local report described the typical
conditions for victims of labor trafficking in Russia and
Kazakhstan, noting that five to 15 people frequently live in a
small room or basement, often in unsanitary conditions. People who
work in the agricultural sector sometimes live in barracks on the
farms at which they work, particularly in Kazakhstan. Women
trafficked for sexual exploitation report that in the UAE (the
primary destination point for sex trafficking), 10-15 women
typically share one small apartment.

Typically, traffickers withhold victims' passports and other
identification documents, often under the pretense of obtaining
official registration, and then threaten to turn victims over to
immigration authorities or police for prosecution or deportation.
This is effective, as victims are usually aware that they entered a
country illegally, either because they supplied false documents,
avoided inspection altogether, or misrepresented their stated
purpose of travel. Victims are generally entirely dependent on the
traffickers for food and shelter and are asked to repay exorbitant
costs to satisfy alleged debts to traffickers.

Adults and children working in the cotton fields often face long
hours of physically demanding labor. There have been reports that
children are not provided with adequate food, drinking water, and
suitable lodging if they are bussed too far from their homes to
return there at night.

D. Due to the poor economic conditions in Uzbekistan,
vulnerability to labor trafficking is widespread and not restricted
to certain groups. Men still make up the majority of labor
trafficking victims, but more and more women are becoming involved.
Some women accompany their husbands, intending to stay in the home
to cook and clean while their husbands work during the day, but
become victims when their passports are taken and they have no way
to return. Other women go to work in the agricultural sector,
domestic service, or even in construction, although in much smaller
percentages than men. (Note: In December, the Chairwoman of

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Uzbekistan's Women's Committee announced the results of a study
showing that in 10 - 27 percent of the families studied, at least
one person traveled abroad for work, and 23 percent of those who
travelled were women.)

Women are the vast majority of victims of sex trafficking.
Although there have been limited reports in the past three years of
boys being trafficked to the UAE for sexual exploitation, there
were no reports of such activity during this reporting period.
Members of the NGO community and officials have voiced concerns
this year that women who grew up in orphanages seem particularly
vulnerable to becoming victims of trafficking, remarking that they
are "easy prey" for traffickers promising a better life.

E. Traffickers do not fit into one particular profile in
Uzbekistan. In the past year there have been several reports of
police breaking up trafficking rings involving groups of Russian
citizens, sometimes with suspected links to organized crime. Even
more common are reports of small-scale operations involving
localized groups or even individuals linked to one or more contacts
abroad.

Traffickers are known to pose as entrepreneurs and businesspeople
offering jobs abroad, and most traffickers make contacts with the
victims through family members or friends living in their own
neighborhoods. Agents in nightclubs or prostitution rings are also
known to solicit women, some of whom are already engaged in
prostitution. In large cities, traffickers used fraudulent
newspaper advertisements for marriage and fraudulent work
opportunities abroad to lure victims. Victims are offered jobs and
decent salaries relative to low local salaries, and they are often
told they will work in restaurants or as cleaners. False documents
are often used to transport victims.

Women being trafficked for sex usually travel by air, often through
secondary airports and transit routes in order to avoid officials
trained in recognizing TIP cases at the international airport in
Tashkent. For example, there are reports that women travel through
Almaty, Kazakhstan; and Bishkek and Osh, Kyrgyzstan instead of
flying through Tashkent for this reason. Labor trafficking victims
are often moved across the border to Kazakhstan by bus or truck, or
to Russia by train. Particularly in cases of sexual exploitation,
victims are held in a form of debt bondage.

In the area of forced labor, school administrators and local hokims
(mayors or governors) are directly responsible for closing schools
and subjecting children to forced labor for roughly six weeks a
year, but it has never been clear from what level of government
those orders originate. Government officials are also responsible
for sending government employees from their normal place of
employment to the cotton fields.

Responses to Paragraph 26: Setting the Scene for the Government's
Anti-TIP Efforts

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------------------------------------

A. The government openly acknowledges that TIP is a problem.
Major anti-TIP legislation was adopted in April 2008 and
supplemented in September 2008 to strengthen the criminal penalties
for trafficking offenders. Uzbekistan also adopted the UN Protocol
on TIP and its own National Action Plan (NAP) to address
Trafficking in July 2008. Government officials have steadily
increased the amount of attention paid to the three major focus
areas within the TIP field (prevention, prosecution, and
protection), and cooperation with NGOs in fighting TIP continued
to increase during the reporting period. This is in stark contrast
to just a few years ago, when TIP was not acknowledged as a
problem, and was considered taboo both by government officials and

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in society at large.

The government does not openly acknowledge that forced labor of
children or adults in the cotton sector is a problem. The practice
of children harvesting cotton, in particular, dates back to Soviet
times, and is often seen as doing one's duty for the state or
community. The older generation is known to speak nostalgically
about picking cotton in the fields, describing it almost as a rite
of passage. The international response to this problem has also
led to a strongly defensive stance among government officials right
up to the president, who resents being criticized by NGOs and
governments who do not (in his opinion) have a well-informed
understanding of the situation here, but rather are subjecting
Uzbekistan to "double standards" for political reasons that have
nothing to do with concerns about child labor.

Despite this resistance, the government has taken some steps to
address forced child labor. In March 2008 it ratified ILO
Conventions 138 (On Minimum Age of Employment) and 182 (On
Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor), and in September
2008 developed a National Action Plan on the implementation of ILO
Conventions, which called for the abolishment of the mobilization
of children in the annual cotton harvest. (Note: In March 2009,
the ILO officially registered Uzbekistan's ratification of
Convention 138, and 182 was officially registered in June 2008.)
The government is finding ways to address the child labor problem
pursuant to these documents, but it does so in a very private
manner and not always in ways that the international community
would prefer. The government has not taken steps to address the
forced labor of adults, which is believed to be done on a much
smaller scale than that of children.

B. The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MFA), National Security Service (NSS), the State Customs
Committee, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection (MOL), the
Office of the Prosecutor General, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ),
parliament, and the National Women's Committee are all involved in
anti-trafficking efforts. The Interagency Commission to Counteract
TIP provides high-level, high-visibility coordination of anti-TIP
efforts. The Prosecutor General chairs the Commission, and other
members include the Ministers of Internal Affairs, Justice,
Economy, Health, Labor and Social Protection, the Chairwoman of the
Women's Committee, Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Internal
Affairs, and Finance, Commander of the Border Guards, Chairman of
the State Customs Committee, Director of the National Center for
Human Rights, the Ombudsman for Human Rights, Chairman of the
"Mahalla" Fund, Chairman of the Central Council of the Youth Public
Movement "Kamolot," and the Director of the Center for the Study of
Public Opinion. Pursuant to the NAP, each of the twelve provinces
have also established local interagency committees. The Prosecutor
General's Office generally has the lead on prosecution issues. MVD
is the primary investigative body, and has a specific
Anti-Trafficking Unit and a Department for Human Rights Protection
that is involved in developing anti-TIP policies. The MOL takes
the lead on victim protection, and administrates the new TIP
victims' shelter opened during the reporting period. Many of these
parties, including the "Mahalla" Committees (traditional
neighborhood units) and "Kamolot" youth movement, conduct
prevention activities.

The bodies responsible for addressing forced labor issues include
the MOL, the Prosecutor General's Office, Hokimiyat Commissions
dealing with minors.

C. Government officials addressing the issue of trafficking
are hampered by cultural taboos, corruption, lack of resources, and
poorly developed criminal investigative techniques. Progress is
being made in all of these areas, however. Print and television
media routinely carry articles on trafficking now, and billboards
are common throughout the capital of Tashkent warning of
TIP-related dangers. Officials at local and national levels
regularly address TIP issues publicly. A lack of funds is a
limiting factor on the government's ability to address TIP, but the
Head of the MVD's Trafficking Unit reported that despite this, it
increased its TIP staffing throughout the country in 2009, notably
increasing its numbers in Tashkent from eight to 16 and in
Samarkand from six to 13. He reported that the total number of
people in the MVD monitoring TIP cases is now 134. The MOL also
opened the Republican Rehabilitation Center for TIP victims in
November, the construction of which reportedly cost more than

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173,000 USD. Thus, despite budget constraints, the government is
moving forward on its efforts to address TIP.

The abolition of forced labor is hampered by the institutionalized
cotton quota system, which places great pressure on every
administrative unit, right down to the local plot level. Local
hokims who could demand that the schools remain open may risk
losing their positions and even facing financial penalties if their
regions do not meet production goals.

D. The Interagency Commission established in 2008 monitors the
country's anti-trafficking efforts by carrying out inspections
regarding implementation of anti-TIP legislation and the NAP. The
MVD carries out initial investigations of TIP cases, and has a
permanent working group to analyze TIP cases. The MOL and
Prosecutor General's Office also have internal departments
dedicated to carrying out the anti-trafficking agenda laid out in
the NAP. The government announced TIP statistics (usually regional
statistics) several times in the state-run press during the
reporting period, and government officials frequently described
their anti-efforts efforts in the media.

The government works with international organizations and NGOs on
monitoring its efforts, and openly discusses its anti-trafficking
efforts and challenges during conferences and study trips arranged
with the support of international NGOs. OSCE representatives
explicitly noted their appreciation for the active role that Uzbek
delegations take in OSCE-sponsored conferences and study trips.

E. The government establishes the identity of local
populations through birth registration, which records citizenship
and nationality.

F. For the last few years, the government has been able to
provide statistics on its TIP efforts, and the capability for
gathering the data required for an in-depth assessment of law
enforcement efforts seems to be improving. One shortfall in the
past has been that different agencies and ministries sometimes
report different statistics. This year, the government took
efforts to address this problem, working with the UNODC to develop
and install a TIP database that will be used in to assist in
monitoring TIP efforts. UNODC completed procurement of all
necessary hardware and software in February 2009, and in March
2009, conducted training for MVD personnel from each region of the
country on the new system. The two sides are now working on
identifying premises within the Ministry for location of the
technical equipment and a trained administrator. This database is
expected to be used on a daily basis by law enforcement around the
country. It will standardize official statistics and facilitate
better and more complete analysis of trafficking trends, and it is
hoped that these measures will fill in any existing gaps in
data-gathering capability in 2010.

Responses to Paragraph 27: Investigation and Prosecution of
Traffickers

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---------------------

A. On April 17, 2008, President Karimov signed into effect the
law "On Combating Trafficking in Persons," which prohibits all
crimes associated with trafficking, including trafficking of
minors. The law defines key terms and principles of combating TIP;
explicitly lists the state agencies with authority in counter-TIP
activities and their responsibilities; lays out the interagency
commission, its goals and representation; establishes special
duties to victims of trafficking, including children; lays out
security measures and other guarantees for victims of trafficking
who participate in prosecutions; and ensures that international
cooperation shall be in accordance with Uzbekistan's international
agreements. The law also states that persons convicted of TIP
offenses shall pay the expenses related to living and
rehabilitation of TIP victims.

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On September 16, 2008, Criminal Code Article 135 was overhauled,
renamed from "Recruitment of Persons for Exploitation" to
"Trafficking in Persons." It now includes provisions addressing
sexual and labor exploitation in both the internal and
transnational contexts. The new code increased the maximum
sentencing provisions from the previous maximum of eight years to
the current maximum of 12 years. This increase is significant
because amnesty may be granted to those convicted of crimes
carrying prison terms of less than ten years, and thus is no longer
available for those convicted of the most serious TIP offenses.

On November 24, 2009, the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan released
instructions "On Proper Court Practice in TIP Cases." Notably, the
decree clarifies that criminal liability attaches when there is an
identified goal to exploit a person. It also instructs lower
courts to "meticulously ensure" whether all person who have
facilitated the TIP-related crime have been brought to
responsibility.

Article 135 is meant to be the main prosecutorial tool for dealing
with TIP offenses, and the Supreme Court stated in its November
decree that additional criminal acts according to other articles of
the criminal code should only be included when the other law
stipulates stricter punishment than the relevant part of Article
135. Some other criminal provisions that continue to play a role
in TIP prosecutions include: Article 137 (Kidnapping), Article 138
(Forced Illegal Imprisonment); Article 209 (Official Forgery);
Article 210 (Receipt of Bribe); Article 211 (Giving a Bribe); as
well as the related crimes of illegal border crossing, maintaining
brothels, "procuration" of women, and entering a commercial sex
transaction. Trafficking victims can also seek restitution under
civil law. There were no additional changes to the criminal code
regarding TIP during 2009.

Forced labor is addressed in the country's labor and administrative
codes. Article 7 of the labor code prohibits forced or coerced
labor except where authorized by law or necessitated by emergency.
Articles 49 and 51 of the administrative code also address forced
labor, imposing fines against officials of two to five times the
minimum wage for violations. On December 21, 2009, President
Karimov strengthened the penalties for using child labor with
amendments to Articles 49 and 51. According to the amendments,
public officials can now be fined five to ten times the minimum
wage (124-377 USD) if the victim of forced labor is a minor. Also,
ordinary citizens (including parents) for the first time may be
fined one to three times the minimum wage (24-72 USD) for the
forced labor of a minor.

In an effort to address Uzbekistan's obligations under the ILO
conventions, President Karimov on December 24, 2009, signed changes
and amendments to the labor code and to the law on "the guarantees
of the rights of the child." The existing law set the minimum age
for employment at 16, but allowed 15 year olds to work with the
written permission of a parent and allowed 14 year olds to be
involved in "light work" that did not hinder the education, health,
or development of the child. The new law does away with the
provision allowing 15 year olds to do light work.

On June 26, 2009, the Ministry of Labor released a list of
activities involving unfavorable work conditions, in which children
under the age of 18 cannot be involved. Cotton picking was
included on that list.

On January 21, 2010, the MOL and the Ministry of Health put out a
joint decree, "On Approval of Requirements on the Prohibition of
the Use of Child Labor," which assigns responsibilities to
employers and parents using child labor. Under the decree, parents
and labor inspectors have the right to demand cessation of a labor
agreement that was entered with a minor if the work threatens the
health or well-being of the child. The decree entered into force
on February 1, 2010.

Uzbekistan is also party to numerous international conventions that

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deal with issues pertaining to TIP. Some of these include: the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified on
March 23, 1995, stating that that slavery and slave-trade in all
forms shall be prohibited, and that no one shall be required to
perform forced or compulsory labor; the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, ratified
on August 18, 1995, stating that parties shall take all appropriate
measures to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation
of prostitution of women; the UN Convention for the Suppression of
the Trafficking in Persons and of the Exploitation of the
Prostitution of Others, ratified on December 12, 2003, dealing with
victim repatriation and assistance; and the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, ratified July 29, 1994, requiring parties to
take measures to combat the illicit transfer and non-return of
children abroad.

B. Sex trafficking offenses carry a minimum of three and a
maximum of 12 years in prison. Press reports confirm that
offenders are indeed being punished with jail time and restitution
payments. Legislation does not provide penalties explicitly for
forced prostitution, but keeping a brothel and pimping are offenses
punishable with fines of 25-50 times the minimum wage (about 628 -
1,250 USD) or three years of correctional labor. The same crime
with involvement of a minor carries penalties of up to five years
in prison.

C. Sentences for labor trafficking range from three to 12
years imprisonment, and a review of press articles regarding TIP
convictions suggests that an average prison term is about six
years. Uzbekistan is a source country for labor trafficking, and
Article 135 of the Criminal Code applies the same penalties for
recruitment of victims as it does for other trafficking violations
(three to 12 years). The country prohibits forced labor of adults
and children through provisions in its administrative and labor
codes, as mentioned above.

D. Penalties for sexual assault in Uzbekistan range from three
to seven years imprisonment. If the victim is under 14 years-old,
the maximum penalty increases to 20 years in prison. Sexual
assault by multiple persons can be punished by up to 15 years in
prison.

E. The government took consistent legal action against human
trafficking offenders during the reporting period. In October, the
Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that between January and
September 2009, authorities opened 959 criminal cases against
suspected traffickers: 318 for sex trafficking and 641 for labor
trafficking. This is more than double the number of cases opened
during the same period in 2009, in which the government opened 436
criminal cases.

For all of 2009, the MVD reported it investigated 1,978 reports of
human trafficking. Following its initial investigation, MVD sent
927 cases to the Prosecutor General's Office, which prosecuted 815
of those cases, leading to convictions in 744 cases involving 1,198
defendants. Of those convicted, 960 received jail time, 116
received suspended sentences, 22 received correctional labor, three
were fined, one received probation, and 96 were released with
applications for amnesty. The average prison sentence ranged from
five to eight years. (Note: A plea bargaining system is not yet
in place for resolving TIP-related cases.) The government did not
disaggregate these numbers, but if the figures from the first nine
months of the year remained consistent, about one third of the
cases involved sex trafficking and about two thirds involved labor
trafficking. The total number of victims was 4,660, of which 4,016
were men and 644 were women.

A common TIP-related problem in years past was that first-time TIP
offenders were eligible for amnesty, and did not serve full prison
terms. The Prosecutor General's office reported in October that
this loophole has been narrowed. Currently, convicted women,
minors, foreign nationals, and those suffering from serious health

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problems may still apply for amnesty, but the vast majority may
not. Moreover, if a trafficker is a repeat offender or if the
damages to the victim(s) are severe, the trafficker is not eligible
for amnesty despite any mitigating circumstances. The figures
above indicate that amnesty was granted in roughly 8 percent of
cases in 2009.

F. In 2009, the Prosecutor General's Office carried out 15
specialized trainings for law enforcement officials regarding TIP.
Local offices also held seminars and roundtables for law
enforcement officers. In conjunction with the Ministry of Internal
Affairs, the Prosecutor General's Office published brochures for
TIP investigators with recommended methodology for investigating
TIP cases.

In July, the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
completed a three-year project with a local NGO to combat
trafficking in persons and protect victims. The program trained
about 1,300 law enforcement officers in prosecuting trafficking
cases and providing assistance to victims.

The OSCE supports an anti-trafficking Training Center for
Prosecutors, which it stocks with information on anti-trafficking
standards and methodological guidelines, training equipment,
technical facilities, books, and an anti-TIP educational database.
On March 25, the OSCE sponsored a delegation of seven Uzbek
officials and one NGO representative on a study trip to Moldova,
Italy, and France. Two of the seven participants were from law
enforcement.

UNICEF conducted a series of trainings for labor inspectors and
others in every region of the country, and also supported the MOL
training of about 200 labor inspectors in August 2009 in various
inspection-related issues, including child labor (not specifically
related to the cotton harvest, however).

G. The government has cooperative relationships and agreements
with several countries, and is party to the Minsk Convention on
Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal
Matters (among CIS countries). The government works closely with
Interpol Tashkent on combating TIP. A representative from MVD
reported in October that his office has good working relations with
counterparts in Russia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, as well as with
law enforcement in the UAE. Relations also improved this year with
officials in India. The government did not provide information on
the number of cooperative international investigations, however, it
has requested extradition from other countries in 112 cases during
the reporting period. Of those, 82 were completed, two were
refused due to the dual citizenship of the defendant, and two are
in the process of being resolved. Of the 112 cases, 88 were to
Russia, 21 to Kazakhstan, 2 to Kirghizstan, and one to India.

H. The Prosecutor General's Office reported that Uzbekistan
has not received any extradition requests for a TIP offender.
Theoretically, the government will extradite its citizens to
another country if a bilateral extradition treaty is in place with
that country.

I. There is no evidence of government involvement in
traditional trafficking at an institutional level, and indeed, the
government has made addressing sex and labor trafficking a
priority. There have been reports of border guards and other
low-level officials being in complicity with traffickers, though,
taking bribes in return for allowing easy transit. Local NGOs also
report that officials have falsified or sold travel documents or
exit visas. Officials from the Prosecutor General's Office stated
in October that they hope that implementation of a biometric
passport program, to be completed in 2011, will help to make such
practices more difficult, and will reduce such low-level
corruption.

The government is intimately involved in the forced labor of
children and adults in the cotton sector. Local hokims, perhaps at
the behest of higher-ranking officials in the system, close schools
or certain grade levels within schools and send children, usually
by bus, to work in the cotton fields for four to six weeks during

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the fall cotton harvest. Government officials are also responsible
for sending state employees such as teachers, doctors, and local
bureaucrats, to work in the cotton fields. On a macro scale, the
government creates the need for adult and child forced labor by
setting production quotas that can be very difficult to meet, and
by not paying farmers enough that they can attract adult laborers
to work on their own accord.

J. The Prosecutor General's office stated in February that
it investigated one TIP case during the rating period involving 13
defendants, one of whom was a government official, and that the
official was punished appropriately. No other information on
investigations into official involvement in TIP was provided.
The November 2009 Supreme Court Decree on TIP cases briefly
addressed cases involving government officials, clarifying that the
TIP offense related to abuse of official power (in Article 135)
means the committing of a crime by an official or other person who
uses his authority or office to assist in committing any of the
other actions described in Article 135.

The government did not investigate and prosecute any officials for
their involvement in the forced labor of children or adults during
the reporting period, although in October it reported that it
reprimanded 150 local administrators for allowing the use of forced
child labor in the 2008 cotton harvest. Moreover, the Trade
Minister announced in October that a few local hokims were replaced
following the 2008 harvest because they allowed the use of child
labor in their districts.

K. Uzbekistan does not contribute troops to international
peacekeeping efforts.

L. Child sex tourism has not been an identified problem in
Uzbekistan, and Uzbek citizens are not known as perpetrators of
child sex tourism.

Responses to Paragraph 28: Protection and Assistance to Victims

--------------------------------------------- ----------------------
-----------

A. Article 12 of the 2008 anti-TIP legislation states that
investigators, prosecutors, and the court shall take security
measures with respect to TIP victims who express their willingness
to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in disclosing persons
suspected in trafficking. The NGO community states that victims
who cooperate with law enforcement are indeed getting such
protection. The law does not address the state's responsibilities
to victims who do not cooperate with law enforcement, and in
practice, they are not provided any assistance. Witnesses who
participate in prosecutions are accorded some protection, including
law enforcement escorts to and from trials, when necessary.

B. On November 8, 2009, the government opened the Republican
Rehabilitation Center, a 30-bed shelter that employs 20 nurses, one
psychologist, one lawyer, and one social worker to assist victims
with finding employment. The government announced well before
construction was finalized that it had already spent 173,000 USD on
the center, but in October officials stated that actual
construction of the center cost much more. In February, officials
stated that the government spent another 133, 300 USD on equipping
the center. The Center is the only shelter in the country that is
open to men, as well as women and children, and reportedly has
specialized care for all three groups. Victims generally may stay
up to 30 days, but extensions are possible. Between November 2009
and February 2010, the Center has assisted 48 persons, including 40
women, seven men, and one minor.

Uzbekistan is not a destination country for trafficking, and during
the reporting period officials recorded no cases of trafficking
victims from other countries. Officials reported that the
Rehabilitation Center is open to all victims of trafficking,
however, including victims from other countries, should such cases
arise.

In October, the Deputy Minister of Labor reported that after the

TASHKENT 00000097 010.2 OF 018

government has some experience with its new shelter, it will look
at opening a regional center for TIP victims, perhaps in the
Ferghana Valley, the Samarkand/Bukhara area, or Navoi, depending on
the number of reported cases from each region. In February, an
official from the same office reported that the opening of another
shelter is probably at least one to two years down the road.

The anti-TIP NGO Istikbolli Avlod runs two shelters in the country,
one in Tashkent and one in Bukhara. Both shelters provide medical,
psychological, legal, and vocational assistance to female
trafficking victims and their children, and both are currently
funded by USAID and IOM grants. (Note: IOM is not registered in
Uzbekistan but is allowed to conduct programming through Istikbolli
Avlod.) The shelters cater to women and sometimes assist minors,
as well. They do not provide specialized care for men. In 2009,
the Tashkent shelter served 115 victims. The Bukhara shelter
served 39 victims. The government does not provide financial
support to these two NGO-run shelters.

As the government generally does not regard forced labor as a
trafficking issue, these shelters are not intended to address the
needs of the victims of forced labor. In addition, as school
children return to school following the harvest and adults return
to their normal work duties, their rehabilitations needs are not
the same as for those victims of traditional sex and labor
trafficking.

C. The 2008 anti-TIP law mandates that the government provide
legal assistance, medical and psychological care, professional
development programs, employment assistance, and temporary housing
to victims of TIP through funds from the state budget. Programming
along these lines is still in its early stages. The NAP tasked
provincial governors with providing much of this assistance, but it
is not known whether they were provided with a budget for
implementing such programs. Local interagency commissions have met
in all regions, and their efforts thus far have seemed to focus on
prevention programs. The government does not provide direct
funding or support to NGOs providing services to trafficking
victims, however it does provide venues for NGO training programs
and awareness-raising activities.

Currently, the MOL operates regional employment centers. On
December 30, 2009, President Karimov issued a decree tasking the
MOL to expand social assistance programs in these centers, to
better meet the needs of the population. MOL officials in February
stated that as a part of that mandate, the MOL is considering ways
to assist trafficking victims in job placement, including
developing a database to match former victims with open positions.

In December 2009, the Chairwoman of the Women's Committee was
quoted in an article saying that in 2009, 34 of 150 repatriated
female victims of trafficking were provided with jobs; 101 were
provided with legal aid, 55 were provided medical assistance, 26
were provided social assistance, and 24 were enrolled in training
courses. (Note: The MVD reported in February 2010 that there were
a total of 485 female victims for the year. The reason for the
discrepancy is unknown.)

D. Article 12 of the 2008 anti-TIP legislation states that if
a foreign citizen or stateless person is a victim of trafficking or
a witness to trafficking, he or she cannot be deported until the
end of the criminal case of the traffickers involved. The victim
in such a case has the right to stay in Uzbekistan regardless of
the circumstances of his or her entry into the country. As stated,
however, Uzbekistan is mainly a source country for trafficking, and
NGOs have reported no foreign trafficking victims during the
reporting period. A strict visa regime (even for transit
passengers) and inconvenient, expensive flight networks also make
Uzbekistan an impractical transit point.

E. The Republican Rehabilitation Center typically provides
victims with housing and services for 30 days, but extensions of up
to 90 days may be authorized. Local governments are tasked with
providing local support, including housing and employment
assistance, for returned victims, but local governments do not have
the resources for extensive assistance measures.

TASHKENT 00000097 011.2 OF 018

F. The government did not provide information on its internal
referral procedures, however, the local NGO Istikbolli Avlod
reported improvements in the referral system, noting that standard
letters requesting the NGO's assistance in providing services or
repatriation assistance have replaced the previous method of ad hoc
telephone calls. Istikbolli Avlod also reported that police,
consular officials, and border guards frequently referred women
returning from abroad who appeared to be trafficking victims to
them for services. The OSCE reported that the establishment of a
legal aid unit within the NGO Istiqbolli Avlod is part of its work
to establish a functional, victim-centered identification and
referral mechanism in Uzbekistan.

G. The government identified 4,660 victims of trafficking
during the 2009 calendar year, including 4,016 men and 644 women.
Although a breakdown for these final figures was not available, the
figures announced for the first nine months of the year showed that
about two thirds of all victims are victims of labor trafficking,
and one third are victims of sex trafficking. Since the
Rehabilitation Center was opened in November, 47 victims were
referred there by law enforcement authorities. The government did
not release information on the number of victims assisted by
government-funded assistance programs.

H. The government does not have a formal system of proactively
identifying victims of trafficking among high-risk persons with
whom they come in contact, however, several trainings have been
conducted for law enforcement on victim identification. Airport
authorities at the main international airport in Tashkent have had
specific instructions to be on the lookout for potential TIP
victims, and NGOs consistently report that airport authorities are
becoming more rigorous in their questioning of Uzbek citizen
travelers. As a result, airports in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were
used as alternative gateways.

There are no known foreign sex workers in the country due to strict
visa regimes, onerous registration requirements, and a weak
economy. Prostitution is illegal under the administrative code,
and punishable by 1-5 times the minimum wage of approximately 24
USD. Uzbek law also prohibits brothels and pimping, punishable by
fines of 25-50 times the minimum wage (600-1,200 USD) and up to
three years of correctional labor.

I. NGOs report that the rights of victims are respected in
Uzbekistan, and that much progress has been made in this area over
the past few years. The three-year IOM-sponsored law enforcement
training program that concluded this year included instruction in
this area, and reached about 1,300 law enforcement officers.
Victims are generally not detained or jailed, and usually are given
a few days following repatriation before they are questioned
officially. The 2008 anti-TIP legislation states that TIP victims
are free from civil, administrative, and criminal responsibility
for actions committed under duress or threat. One exception to
this general rule is that victims are sometimes charged with
illegal border crossing when they return to Uzbekistan from abroad.
Often it is the investigation of these charges that leads to
further prosecution of TIP offenders. But despite the law freeing
victims from criminal responsibility, often those border crossing
charges are not dismissed. Victims charged with illegal border
crossing often are not inclined to assist in the investigation and
prosecution of trafficking charges against others.

J. The government encourages victims to assist in the
investigation and prosecution of trafficking, and officials from
the Prosecutor General's office in February described victim
involvement as "crucial" to a successful prosecution. They stated
that for this reason, victims participated in practically all of
the 815 TIP cases that went to court during 2009.

In addition to assisting in criminal cases, victims may file civil
suits or seek legal action against traffickers. Istikbolli Avlod
reported that in 2009 its lawyers helped two victims get
compensation from recruiters through civil court proceedings. The
2008 anti-TIP legislation states that a person convicted for TIP

TASHKENT 00000097 012.2 OF 018

offenses shall be liable for the rehabilitation of trafficking
victims, although there are no procedures in place for going after
a defendant's foreign assets if there are none located in
Uzbekistan.

There are no formal programs in place to protect victims who might
be material witnesses. A victim who is a material witness in a
case against a former employer is not forbidden from obtaining
other employment pending trial proceedings.

K. The government includes victim identification in its
trainings and roundtables for law enforcement officials. The three
year IOM training program also included sessions on victim
identification, involving psychologists discussing signs that could
indicate that someone is a victim. This training did not
specifically address child victims. Article 11 of the 2008
legislation specifically addresses the needs of children, however,
requiring agencies to notify child custody agencies immediately
when they have information on children who may be victims; to place
children in specialized agencies separately from adults, with
access to educational institutions; and to assist in finding
parents or guardians of child victims when their whereabouts are
otherwise unknown.

Information on whether the government provides training on
protection and assistance to its embassies and consulates in
foreign countries that are destination or transit countries was not
available. The number of trafficking victims assisted by its
embassies or consulates abroad during the reporting period was also
not available. The government does assist in the repatriation of
victims by providing travel documents and referrals.

L. The 2008 anti-TIP legislation requires that the government
provide shelter and other reintegration support from the state
budget. Although making this requirement a reality will take some
time, the government made substantial progress during the reporting
period by opening the new Rehabilitation Center, which provides
medical aid and shelter. Some financial assistance is given to
minors during repatriation, although the sums are small. The
government has not had the resources to provide funding to adult
victims, but it does cooperate with IOM to provide assistance to
repatriated trafficking victims.

M. IOM works with victims of trafficking through its local
affiliate, Istikbolli Avlod. Istikbolli Avlod has a network of ten
regional NGOs around the country, and runs the two non-governmental
TIP shelters in Tashkent and Bukhara. The shelters provide
medical, legal, and vocational services to female victims of TIP
and their children. Istikbolli Avlod registered 754 victims of
trafficking during the calendar year, involving 461 female and 293
male victims. It assisted in the repatriation of 436 adult victims
(337 female, 99 male) and 23 minors. It assisted in the
rehabilitation and reintegration of 195 adults (all female) and 7
minors. With assistance from the local OSCE office, Istikbolli
Avlod established a legal office with two attorneys on staff to
help victims navigate the legal process, and succeeded in securing
compensation for victims from TIP recruiters. In 2009, Istikbolli
Avlod conducted 609 TIP prevention activities, and more than 46,000
people participated in activities and trainings (22,492 women and
23,532 men). It published 71 newspaper articles on TIP issues. It
contributed to 60 television programs and placed 32 television ads;
119 radio programs and 167 radio ads. Istikbolli Avlod operates
nine TIP hotlines throughout the country, and in 2009 it tallied
13,691 incoming calls. It placed 90 newspaper advertisements
promoting the hotlines. Finally, it participated in the
repatriation of 401 adult victims (302 female and 99 male) and 23
minors.

Istikbolli Avlod reports that cooperation with local and national
authorities remains strong, and that GOU officials regularly meet
and cooperate with them in assisting with repatriation and
subsequent readjustment of victims. In the last few months of the
reporting period, the government has been requesting Istikbolli
Avlod's participation in various prevention activities once or

TASHKENT 00000097 013.2 OF 018

twice per week, suggesting that a strong trust has developed
between them.

IOM remains unregistered. It applied for registration during the
reporting period, but the government has yet to announce its
decision on the matter.

The U.S. Embassy's Democracy Commission supports the Bukhara-based
shelter, as well as a project in northwest Uzbekistan that monitors
and tries to reduce the number of human trafficking cases in the
area. These grant recipients also report cooperative relationships
with authorities.

Responses to Paragraph 29: PREVENTION

--------------------------------------------- ------

A. The government continued its extensive efforts noted last
year in increasing awareness of traditional TIP issues during the
reporting period. In February, the Prosecutor General announced
that more than 18,000 events related to TIP have been carried out
since the establishment of the Interagency Commission in 2008.
This includes 7,000 programs and articles, including television
programs and public service announcements. The Uzbek National
Drama Theater put on a TIP-themed play in 2009, translated roughly
into "I Suffer for What I have Done." The Prosecutor General's
office published more than 4 million brochures, and put up 1,438
billboards and 325, 128 posters. Many of the Prosecutor General's
efforts included information on the methods used by trafficking
rings.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) engaged in some prevention
activities regarding forced child labor. In fall 2009, it sent
letters to school directors throughout the country, asking them to
certify that they would not send students to participate in the
cotton harvest. The MOE also sent letters to local hokims, asking
them not to close schools during the cotton harvest. There were
some signs that these letter were effective, as one influential
hokim in the Ferghana Valley (the largest cotton-producing region
of the country) made headlines by forbidding any of the schools in
his region from closing in order to send children to the fields.

B. The MOL reported it distributed 10,000 brochures this year,
entitled, "TIP is Slavery." It sponsored 26 radio broadcasts, 16
articles in the mass media, and six television programs. It
distributed posters in Tashkent City and Tashkent Region with the
heading, "Don't be Deceived," and it produced a serial radio
program with the same title. During the first half of 2009, it
aired TIP-related programs every Monday and Friday morning, in
cooperation with a Tashkent radio station. In addition, it
published many articles in central newspapers, and placed 2,000
booklets to airports and railway stations, for distribution to
those leaving the country for foreign employment. Billboards and
posters were highly visible in Tashkent and in the airports, no
doubt reaching many thousands of people in the capital alone. This
demonstrates quite a commitment in a country where talking about
such problems was taboo only a few years ago.

The Women's Committee announced in a December 2009 article that
since July 2008, its working group has conducted 10,000 discussions
and meetings, published and aired 2,000 articles and programs, and
conducted seminars on a woman's role in anti-TIP activities in
eight regions. It also held discussions on TIP in Tashkent and
distributed brochures to people traveling abroad for work.

The government did not restrict its efforts to signs and handouts.
The MOL in January and February 2009 held several TIP informational
meetings in Tashkent in conjunction with local Mahallah Committees
(neighborhood administrative units), the National Women's
Committee, and other agencies. In March and April, it moved out of
the capital, carrying out seminars on labor trafficking and on
working legally abroad in each of the fourteen regions.
Approximately 2,000 labor inspectors took part in these seminars,
targeting unemployed people in order to explain typical trafficking
situations and problems. In all, the MOL held 299 round tables and
262 seminars on TIP-related issues. In conjunction with UNICEF,

TASHKENT 00000097 014.2 OF 018

the MOL provided training for labor inspectors in seven regions on
forced labor and implementation of ILO conventions regarding child
labor. No inspections were done in the cotton fields during the
fall harvest, however.

The MOL also worked in cooperation with the Agency for Press and
Information to address the publication of advertisements for
questionable work opportunities abroad. The DOL reported in
February that through its efforts, the number of "dubious" ads for
overseas employment has been substantially reduced.

C. Currently, the government does not have the capacity to
methodically monitor immigration and emigration patterns for
evidence of trafficking. Airport officials have reportedly been
very successful at identifying potential victims at the airports,
but a high percentage of labor trafficking victims travel across
land borders. Border guards have been instructed to screen for
trafficking victims at key exit points, but many people cross at
unauthorized border crossing points. Thus, a complete analysis is
difficult. Officials hope that the biometric passport system still
in development will improve its capacity to track migration data.
That program is scheduled for completion in 2011.

Regional interagency commissions chaired by local hokims (governors
and mayors) are in place in each of the 12 provinces. The MVD has
a special unit that coordinates its activities throughout the
country. This year, the MOL established an internal working group
to deal with prevention issues. Through its periodic meetings, it
also focuses on implementation of the NAP. The Prosecutor
General's Office also has a Working Group for implementation of the
NAP.

The National Action Plan regarding implementation of ILO
Conventions 138 and 182 assigns responsibilities to several
different agencies and ministries, and the First Deputy Prime
Minister has oversight responsibilities. Goals of the plan include
the establishment of a special consultative council on prohibition
of the worst forms of child labor, which would be under the purview
of the Commission of Minors in the Cabinet of Ministers. So far,
however, interagency coordination has been done on an ad hoc basis.

D. The government adopted its NAP on Combating Trafficking in
Persons on July 25, 2008, and it remains in effect through 2010.
The government made progress on many of the items in the plan
during the reporting period. Most notably, it opened the
Rehabilitation Center for victims of TIP. The extensive awareness
campaigns carried out during the reporting period are also pursuant
to the NAP.

With the NAP in place, interagency communication on TIP issues
seemed to improve during the reporting period. In February 2009,
the MOL held roundtable discussions with MVD personnel and its
anti-terrorism department. In various discussions, the MOL
provided information received from its two trafficking hotlines to
the MVD and the Prosecutor General for follow up. (Note: Of the
34 TIP-related calls that came in, all 34 were from victims.
Nineteen of them informed about individual perpetrators, and the
remainder on criminal networks.) In October 2009, the MVD held an
open lecture for MOL staff working on TIP issues. A similar
meeting in January 2010 involved speakers from the newly opened
Rehabilitation Center.

The MOL also reported improved internal procedures, in furtherance
of the goals in the NAP. In December 2009, it published a book of
documents related to labor migration and TIP, and distributed them
to labor inspectors in December 2009 and January 2010. It
conducted TIP prevention seminars for labor inspectors in eight of
the twelve regions of the country. The MOL also established a
working group this year to focus on TIP prevention issues.

Having learned through its hotlines that most trafficking victims
were deceived by people offering legitimate employment, the MOL
reported that it is increasing its efforts to increase the legal

TASHKENT 00000097 015.2 OF 018

employment opportunities of Uzbek citizens abroad. In 2009, Russia
agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding with Uzbekistan on labor
migration, the purpose of which was to ensure the rights of migrant
workers in both countries. Following this agreement, the MOL's
Agency for Foreign Labor Migration sent a delegation to Siberia to
discuss opportunities for labor migrants from Uzbekistan. This
agency also sent invitations to other European and Asian countries
to set up similar agreements. It sent a draft Memorandum of
Understanding to Germany for such an agreement, and will send a
delegation in March 2010 to follow up on the invitation. A similar
MOU is being discussed with the Czech Republic, and agreements with
Oman and Qatar are being considered. MOL officials stated that the
global financial crisis has made coming to agreement more
difficult, as countries now have higher domestic unemployment rates
and are less inclined to open up to foreign labor forces. (The
Scandinavian countries reportedly refused overtures along these
lines for that reason.) Nevertheless, the MOL intends to continue
its efforts to find legal employment opportunities for its citizens
abroad.

In September 2008, the government adopted a National Action Plan
(in effect through 2010) on Implementation of ILO Conventions 138
and 182, which serves as its framework for addressing child labor,
including forced child labor. The Plan involves 21 different
agencies, and it has three main sections: strengthening the
anti-child labor legislative framework; enhancing the monitoring
mechanisms of child labor; and engaging in awareness raising
campaigns on the worst forms of child labor. The Plan also
includes mechanisms for implementation of the ILO conventions,
deadlines for performance, and the ministries responsible for each
activity. Articles 11 and 12 in the Plan expressly prohibit forced
labor by school children and call for mechanisms to ensure school
attendance. Other articles of the Plan refer to data gathering,
accounting, inspection, permanent monitoring to ensure national
compliance of the ILO conventions, and participation by Uzbek
officials in international discussions on child labor.

The government completed some of the goals articulated in the
National Action Plan this year. The June 2009 MOL list of
activities that may be harmful to the health and safety of an
adolescent under than 18 years was adopted directly pursuant to the
Plan, as was the change to the minimum age of employment in the law
"guaranteeing the rights of the child." The amendments to the
administrative and labor codes, which impose penalties on
individual farmers and parents using forced child labor and
increased fines for officials engaged in such activities, were also
directly pursuant to the Plan. The January 2010 Joint Decree put
out by the Ministries of Labor and Health and the efforts the MOE
took to keep the schools open in the fall furthered the goals of
the plan. The government established a child labor working group
within the Ministry of Labor to oversee implementation of the Plan.
It also worked with UNICEF on an awareness campaign, and conducted
some training of labor inspectors that reportedly touched on child
labor, in furtherance of the Plan.

Several aspects of the plan have yet to be addressed, including
improved monitoring of child labor; training of public education,
law enforcement and NGO employees on best practices involving
elimination of the worst forms of child labor, and
awareness-raising on the negative consequences of engaging children
in the worst forms of child labor.

E. Uzbekistan is overwhelmingly a source country for TIP, and
is focused on preventing its citizens from becoming victims abroad.
It has not directed efforts to reducing the demand for commercial
sex acts. Intensive efforts to raise general awareness of the
problem do, however, serve the dual-purpose of informing commercial
sex clients in the country of the terrible circumstances TIP
victims may face.

F. As a source country, Uzbekistan has not focused its
efforts on reducing the participation in international child sex
tourism by Uzbek nationals. Uzbekistan controls the departure of
its citizens by requiring exit visas, and could be in a position to
stop known or wanted offenders from traveling overseas.

G. Uzbekistan has not contributed troops for international
peacekeeping efforts, therefore this section is not applicable.

TASHKENT 00000097 016.2 OF 018

Response to Paragraph 30: Partnerships

--------------------------------------------- ----

A. The government has devoted considerable energy to
engagement with other governments, civil society, and multilateral
organizations on traditional TIP issues. It has worked in
conjunction with several diplomatic missions on addressing TIP
issues, notably, the French, Israeli and U.S. Embassies, sending
officials to conferences and providing other educational
opportunities.

The OSCE office in Tashkent provides assistance in TIP programming
with the goal of establishing a functional, victim-centered
identification and referral mechanism and the development of a
longer term strategy for social inclusion of victims. In
cooperation with the OSCE Mission to Moldova, the Italian Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, and the French Ministry of the Interior, the
OSCE organized an Anti-Trafficking Study Tour to Moldova, Italy,
and France for seven officials of Uzbek anti-trafficking agencies.
The participants submitted a joint report following the trip with
recommendations, including the development of mechanisms for victim
identification and the creation of a referral structure within the
MVD to work closely with NGOs.

The OSCE in 2009 initiated the creation of a legal aid unit with
the NGO Istiqbolli Avlod, and supports the work of two attorneys
who provide legal assistance to trafficking victims. The OSCE
reported that over a two month period, the legal aid unit provided
95 consultations on issues of migration and identified 16 cases of
human trafficking. The attorneys followed up these cases with
legal assistance, protecting the victims' rights during the
investigation process and court hearings, the preparation of
documents, and assistance in housing and employment

In November 2009, the OSCE convened a workshop on "Protecting the
Rights of Trafficked Persons," bringing together 25 defense
attorneys from Uzbekistan and international experts from France,
Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. Participants
shared best practices on providing effective legal aid to the
victims of human trafficking, as well as identifying problems and
finding solutions to existing legal and practical barriers.

The government signed an MOU with the UNODC in 2009, in which both
parties agreed to continue their cooperative anti-TIP efforts,
among other things. The UNODC sponsored a study tour to India in
2009 for officials from five Uzbek ministries. The delegation met
with counterparts, visited shelters, and exchanged ideas with law
enforcement officials. In response to a request from Uzbekistan's
Supreme Court, the UNODC published 1,000 copies of a compendium of
human rights documents and treaties to which Uzbekistan is a party
(including TIP-related documents), for distribution to Uzbekistan's
1,000 judges. UNODC has provided helpful materials to assist in
the establishment of the shelter for TIP victims. UNODC reports
good cooperation amongst the various ministries, and said that the
MVD has expressed its support for extending UNODC's project
parameters.

In May 2009, UNODC sponsored a three-day workshop on international
and national mechanisms of combating human trafficking and
protecting victims of human trafficking. Approximately 35 Uzbek
government officials participated, representing the MVD, MFA,
Prosecutor General's Office, National Security Service, and Supreme
Court. A specialist at the workshop helped to develop a training
module for law enforcement in Uzbekistan on best practices in
detection and investigation of trafficking crimes, as well as
prosecution of traffickers and protection of victims.

The UNODC and OSCE in May 2008 sponsored the first annual regional

TASHKENT 00000097 017.2 OF 018

workshop on international cooperation among source, transit, and
destination countries to combat human trafficking in Central Asia.
This workshop focused on the extradition of traffickers and
identification and protection of victims. In November 2009, the
second annual workshop took place in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, and
included law enforcement, prosecutorial and judicial authorities,
and NGOs from all five Central Asian countries, Azerbaijan,
France, Italy, the Russian Federation, Thailand, Turkey, the UAE,
and the U.S. (Note: U.S. Embassy Ashgabat funded the travel for
one U.S. prosecutor and one Official from the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement Office [ICE] to attend.) Nongovernmental
participants included IOM, Interpol, the OSCE, and Eurojust. The
workshop focused on best practices in the following areas:
criminalization of human trafficking; cooperation between law
enforcement agencies and NGOs; information exchange among law
enforcement groups; international mutual legal assistance; and
proper adjudication of cases. The Uzbek delegation (and other
delegations) presented its main laws and practices on transnational
TIP offenses, and explained problems regarding investigations,
prosecution, and adjudication of the cases. The UAE is considering
hosting the conference in 2010, and the organizers would like to
expand participation to include representatives from India and
Bangladesh. Participation in such conferences shows Uzbekistan's
willingness to move forward in cooperation with other countries on
anti-TIP efforts, and highlights areas where improvements can be
made.

The government works closely with IOM and its local implementer,
Istikbolli Avlod. IOM sent Uzbek delegations on study visits in
June 2009 to Poland and July 2009 to Turkey to meet with
counterparts, compare best practices, and improve international
communication related to prosecuting trafficking cases and
providing assistance to victims. Representatives from Istikbolli
Avlod report cooperative relationships at all levels of the
government, from ministers down to local police who help address
neighborhood concerns about shelters. In looking to improve its
legislative regime, the government even contacted Istikbolli Avlod
attorneys for suggestions to the criminal code and anti-trafficking
laws. IOM representatives based in Astana also report cooperative
relationships with Uzbek officials.

In April 2009, the government entered into an Annual Work Plan with
UNICEF to address child labor, specifically targeting child labor
in the cotton sector. The Work Plan addressed several goals,
including monitoring and implementation of the National Action
Plan, raising awareness of national and international legislation
on child labor; conducting training programs for labor inspectors,
local administrators, teachers, farmers, and other relevant
parties; and developing community-based prevention programs.
Pursuant to the Plan, UNICEF conducted a knowledge and attitude
survey to identify the level of knowledge of children, parents,
government officials and farmers on existing legislation regarding
child labor and to identify their attitudes toward child work,
child labor, and the value of education. Its study showed that
people are generally aware of the government's recent increased
recent commitment to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. For
some, however, involvement of children in cotton picking is still
perceived as a necessary, normal component of children's
educational or social development.

UNICEF also conducted an awareness-raising campaign, holding
meetings on child labor with parents and school administrators in
all provinces of the country in an effort to change societal
attitudes on child labor and increase the population's knowledge of
child rights and protection from forced labor. As part of this
program, UNICEF developed and distributed advocacy materials
through farmers associations, schools, and local government
administrative offices, as well as local branches of the Human
Rights Ombudsman and the MOL. UNICEF conducted a series of
trainings for labor inspectors, local administrators, teachers,
school administrators, prosecutors, staff of the ombudsman offices,
police, and farmers. It also supported the training of the 200
labor inspectors pursuant to this Plan, although the training did
not address child labor in the cotton fields specifically. The
government also allowed UNICEF to do limited monitoring of child
labor during the fall cotton harvest. UNICEF reports that
cooperation with government entities on child labor is steadily
improving.

The government entered into an agreement with the World Bank in

TASHKENT 00000097 018.2 OF 018

2009, under which the World Bank will provide low-interest
financing to farmers on the condition that the farmers certify that
they will not use child labor on their land. Under this agreement,
the World Bank anticipates being able to monitor the cotton harvest
on the land of those farmers receiving funding as a way of ensuring
that their contractual commitments are being met.

B. The government does not provide international assistance to
other countries to address TIP.

Response to Paragraph 33: THE CHILD SOLDIERS PREVENTION ACT
--------------------------------------------- ----------------------
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Uzbekistan has never been the subject of allegations regarding
unlawful child soldiering, and this section therefore is not
applicable.

NOMINATION OF HEROES AND BEST PRACTICES

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A. HEROES: Post would like to nominate Natalia Abdullayeva as
an anti-trafficking hero. Abdullaeva has been working to combat
human trafficking since 2003, when she became involved in an IOM
counter-trafficking project supported by USAID. Between 2003 and
2008 she actively sought registration for an anti-trafficking
organization in northwestern Uzbekistan, but was consistently
denied. She continued to work on TIP issues under the auspices of
other organizations doing related work until 2009, when she was
finally granted registration for her own NGO, named "Isenim"
("Trust"), to specifically address TIP problems. Her organization
is one of only a handful of NGOs to secure registration since 2005.

In northwestern Uzbekistan, specifically around the city of Nukus
and throughout the semiautonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan, labor
migration and trafficking is a sad reality, with some cities almost
completely devoid of working-age men. Abdulaeva has shown great
enthusiasm and innovative approaches to trafficking prevention,
publishing anti-TIP advertisements and disseminating them in the
markets and buses heading for Kazakhstan, and even conducting
mini-TIP information sessions on regular private shuttles en route
to the border. In addition, she has developed partnerships with
the private sector, cooperating with the local cellular phone
company to disseminate free SMS messages with anti-TIP information
and a hotline number to subscribers. Moreover, Abduallaeva has
established good cooperation with the Karakalpak Ministry of
Internal Affairs, and is now working jointly with them on
trafficking prevention and repatriation of victims.

Post commends Abdulaeva for her tireless efforts, and nominates her
as an anti-trafficking hero. A search of the CLASS system and law
enforcement databases has revealed no derogatory information or
visa ineligibilities.

B. COMMENDABLE INITIATIVES: Istikbolli Avlod's Jizzakh
branch has instituted an innovative peer-to-peer outreach project
to inform young people about the dangers of TIP. The NGO has
trained 46 young trainers, many of them still in high school
themselves, to visit schools and talk to students about human
trafficking using interactive games, role plays, videos, and
question and answer sessions. It's difficult to measure the
impact of such a prevention program, but organizers report that
youth are more likely to talk freely with these young trainers than
with other adults, and that the program has been well-received by
both students and school administrators. Post commends Istikbolli
Avlod's creative outreach effort.

NORLAND
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