Kazakhstan is against Human Trafficking in Persons (Part II)

As you know from my previous entry, last Saturday we had a meeting with the representatives of the US Embassy in Kazakhstan and had a discussion about human trafficking in persons. They showed us one presentation giving us general information and some stats and told us some true stories they heard from the victims of this kind of organized crime, whom they met during their experience of working in our country. And I think all my readers should know these stories just to be aware that no one is fully prevented from being victimized. A few years ago three people, two men from Karaganda and Temirtau and a woman from Ukraine, were freed after 15 years of forced work in a farm near Karaganda, the owner of which was rather famous and powerful in the local area. These three people were so far from the civilization that they even didn’t know about the independence of our country, about “tenge” (Kazakhstani monetary unit), they thought that people were still using rubles. They no access to Tv, radio, any sources of mass media, they just worked as slaves for no pay, under terrible conditions eating odds and ends left after the dinner of the owner’s family. Initially, these three people were in good relationships with their “further” trafficker. The were having her internship in that farm before she was victimized, the other two men were simple workers and used to get salary and have good and friendly treatments at first. Then everything had totally changed. In those 15 years the woman lost her mother, and her sister moved to another country, so when she was freed (she was 28 years old when she was trafficked and was unmarried) she had nobody waiting for her back in her country. Unfortunately, our guests knew nothing about her further life. The “slaves” could not contact the police because on of the owner sons worked for the transport police, they just didn’t believe the local policemen. Fortunately, one of the owner’s seasoned workers was a really kind-hearted man, and when his work was finished, he reported the police about the situation happening in that family and could cause to release those “slaves”.  Anyway, the judge sentenced the owner and his son to three and two years probation. As it was discovered afterwards, the judge was a woman with three kids, and she was worried about her family.

In many cases the victims are left alone and aren’t accepted to their families again. Especially, such things happen to the girls came from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and other bordering Islamic countries and became the victims of forced sexual exploitation. Their parents think it as a shame accepting these girls back to the family, and mostly have them stayed in the country they were enslaved. That’s why in many cases the girls refuse to report against the traffickers and try to stay anonymous, hence they indirectly help the traffickers. Such a thing could happen to a girl who was enslaved after leaving Temirtau orphanage (in Kazakhstan kids leave have to leave the orphanages when they reach 18). She was forced to serve men sexually, there were days when she had up to 15 clients a day. But when she was freed she refused to testify against the pimps. Anyway, in September, 2010, 5 traffickers were convicted up to 8 years.

As Marko Velikonja (the US Embassy representative) has noticed, Kazakhstan’s Government in pretty well engaged in this international problem. He’d been worked in Russia and Armenia earlier, and in comparison with these countries, Kazakhstan is doing good job. The Government is working on law enforcement, creating new projects in cooperation with NGOs and the Embassy departments. In 2010 32 traffickers were detained and imprisoned up to 14 years, whereas in 2006 there was a case on one trafficker who did not get any punishment in the result. To mind, these facts show that this issue has been taken seriously recently. And I really hope that we will progress in solving the problems of human trafficking in persons in near future.