The Debrief: Issue Fourteen

The profitability and availability of forced labour in Kyrgyzstan
by Gavin Southway

Image Credit: Ninara, Wikimedia Commons.

The mountains of Kyrgyzstan provide a beautiful backdrop for a story. Cloud-crested mountains roll around the area, surrounded by traditional yurts, keeping the soul of the nation’s rich cultural heritage alive in this small pocket of Central Asia.

The scenery hides, however, a dark secret that, as commentators have noted, the country has not confronted. In recent months, the issue of human trafficking has returned to the fore in the nation. A store assistant in the capital, Bishkek, made headlines in June for employing thirty South Asians without providing them with proper working conditions.

The store owners confiscated the passports of those working there and refused to pay them proper wages, threatening to report them for illegally being in the country. Such threats, US government anti-trafficking agencies have noted, have contributed to victims refusing to come forward.

Human trafficking covers a broad range of possibilities, but all of them threaten the freedom, mental and physical health, and safety of those affected. Around the world, an estimated 27 million people are trafficked every year, and Kyrgyzstan’s own numbers are higher or lower depending on one’s source.

Kyrgyzstan has an unique position as both a pit stop for human trafficking across Asia and into Europe, but also as a rich source country for criminal gangs to exploit their compatriots. Though international organisations have helped those in forced labour, the Kyrgyz government has been slow to play catch-up, as more and more Kyrgyz citizens are forced into trafficking, or, in some cases, trapped in limbo.

Arrivals to Kyrgyzstan

The Kyrgyz Constitution bans slavery, yet such offences rarely end up with prosecution, and for the past 20 years Kyrgyzstan’s underground human trafficking industry has been growing steadily. In 2015, 92 cases of human trafficking were opened according to Kyrgyz authorities, however, according to the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia, there are no less than 5,000 cases annually in the country, and the International Organisation of Migration estimates the number to be up to 15,000 a year.

In 2004, it was reported that, in a country where the average wage was $1,500 a year, traffickers could earn $250,000 a season in the industry to sell them to work on plantations. Were they to sell victims into sex work, traffickers became multi-millionaires. In twenty years, that dial does not appear to have shifted significantly. Many workers come from within the country, yet there is a significant stream of people arriving from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, who use the country as a pit stop before going on to Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey, often to be exploited for sex or manual work.

Kyrgyzstan’s internal market, available for all ages

Kyrgyzstan’s human trafficking is not limited to simply being a stop-over towards Russia and the European border. It occupies a unique position as both an intermediary on routes towards China, Russia and even further afield towards Finland, South Korea and India; but also, sadly, as an important source country. Kyrgyz crime groups are more decentralised, and so rather than rival the gangs of Russia further north, many simply exploit their compatriots.

By 2015 the trafficking of babies appeared to be particularly profitable, with the Centre for Rehabilitation of Street Children saying it was “easier to buy a child than adopt”, due to bureaucracy to go through the legal channels. The prices, with newborns particularly in style, ranged from 20,000 to 25,000 som ($320 to $400), and were sold by some for up to US$7,000.

It was also noted that girls as young as 10, often from remote mountainous areas of the country, were being trafficked into prostitution. Victims note that traffickers are often known to their victims as friends or even family members. This vicious circle of trafficking thus keeps the valuable underground market going.

A valuable export market

Kyrgyzstan’s illegal labour export market is perhaps even stronger than its import market. A popular destination for Kyrgyz workers is Russia, however, since 2022 the effects of the economic downturn after the invasion of Ukraine appear to be slowing down this market. This further complicated the effects of an earlier Russian ban on re-entry for those who entered illegally. Many Kyrgyz workers stay in Russia undocumented, rather than return home. Traffickers then are known to use the threat of reporting them, and of subsequent deportation, as leverage to secure their services. Those caught in this limbo thus do not feel comfortable speaking out. Either that, or they try to find opportunities in other countries, leaving them even more vulnerable to trafficking.

Kyrgyz traffickers export to a variety of countries, some more far-flung than others. Whether it acts as a pit stop for those trafficking from other countries in Central Asia, such as Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, or when the country functions as a source of illegal migrant workers, all those who enter the market are at the mercy of traffickers, who then are taken to other countries further afield.

A remedy for the situation

There exists a clear discrepancy between figures provided by the Kyrgyz authorities and those reported by international labour organisations. These in turn, argue many human rights activists, reflect an abundance of loopholes in the Kyrgyz labour law, which makes forced labour extremely difficult to prove. Although the criminal code was amended in 2019 to criminalise trafficking, a persistent threat of retribution for victims who summon up the courage to come forward, combined with difficulty to prove trafficking, has resulted in a low rate of prosecution.

In 2004 at least, another issue was that those in forced labour were often seen as liable for their actions. Girls returning to Kyrgyzstan from being in forced labour, for example, were then caught for crossing the border illegally.

With a government short on measures (and funds) to counter trafficking, it has been down to international labour organisations to pick up the tab. The Swiss Development Agency recently opened hotlines in Bishkek, where trained advisors talk to victims. The UN’s International Organisation for Migration returns Kyrgyz citizens to their home country and finances their return and psychological assistance.

However, while there is certainly no panacea in a complex issue, these associations can only do so much. Without governmental assistance and confidence for victims, Kyrgyzstan’s black market for labour won’t go away.