“Shymkent”, # 25, 27/07/2007
E. Udaltsova

   According to the UN, some 12 million people worldwide live in slavery. Economically developed and developing countries alike are involved in the illegal trade of human beings. There is no exception in Kazakhstan. The relatively successful economic growth in our country against the background of the other states of Central Asia creates favorable conditions for the development of trafficking, that is, the slave trade. According to various organizations in Kazakhstan, a cheap labor force is supplied with citizens of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.
   According to observers, those sold into slavery in Kazakhstan, are used as domestic servants, construction workers, miners, in sewing shops, and other areas. According to expert estimates, the main victims of the slave trade are women and children. They are used more for sex than a cheap labor force. Girls, as young as eleven years old, are used for prostitution.
   The most unfortunate of the victims are children. Parents send them to work to make their share when there are severe socio-economic situations at home. And in most cases, they are not knowledgeable that they are sending children into the hands of the traffickers. The victims, according to international organizations, are about forty girls and boys daily. According to the UN, children are not only used in prostitution, but also forced to wash cars, to beg, work in agriculture, and are also increasingly used as organ donors…
   Not so long ago, in the Kazakh city of Aktobe, police liberated 13 citizens of Uzbekistan from slavery. They arrived in Kazakhstan after mediators promised to provide them with jobs and when they arrived, they took their documents. Then they sold them to others, making them slaves. The six men and seven women from Uzbekistan, in the next few months, worked twenty hours a day. They were regularly subjected to beatings and humiliation by their “master” and two of the women were repeatedly raped by relatives.
   The citizens of Kazakhstan are not immune to the plight of slavery. 18 year old Nargiza, “traveled” to Turkey, where she fell into the hands of drug traffickers and was forced to engage in prostitution. Nargiza’s freedom from captivity was made possible through the Legal Center for Women's Initiatives “Sana Sezim”. Such cases in the South - Kazakhstan Region are not rare.
   NGO “Sana Sezim” is implementing the project “Stop trafficking”, with the financial support of the European Commission in Kazakhstan. Recently, together with the Commission for the Development of Democracy at the U.S. Embassy, as well as the F. Ebert Foundation, the Legal Center for Women's Initiatives “Sana Sezim” held a training seminar for media representatives from Shymkent and Taraz on «Peculiarities of journalistic investigation of human trafficking and related issues”.
   In order to inform the public and draw attention to the progression of this phenomenon we have turned to the task of journalists.
   The program of the seminar include the following topics: what is journalistic investigation, the ethics and standards of journalistic investigation, interviews with trafficking victims, and the safety of journalists. To avoid becoming victims of trafficking, or at least to escape from captivity, the advice of special services was taken into account, to tackle the spread of the slave trade.
   So, if you are going to work abroad, you should have the exact address of a future job. Leave it with relatives and friends. Take care as well that you have tickets there and back, with a return ticket with an open date. Personal documents, particularly passports, should always be with you. Do not trust them with anyone, and make a photocopy of all important documents, bringing one with you and leaving one at home. Before leaving discuss your plans with friends and family. And as always check the phone number and address of non-governmental organizations working in the country of your departure, which you can appeal to if necessary. And if you are or have been a victim of trafficking, do not try to deal with the problem alone, contact social services.
   The staff of Center for Women's Initiatives “Sana Sezim” can be contacted direct on the hotline at 56-27-32, where you can get free advice and assistance of a lawyer and a psychologist.