“Zhanybi Kazakhstan”, 10/12/2008
NGO “Sana Sezim”

   The Legal Center for Women's Initiatives "Sana Sezim", with the financial support of the OSCE/ODIHR has launched the project "Information campaign and legal assistance to migrant workers, as potential victims of trafficking in the border regions of Kazakhstan”.
   At this stage, human trafficking is one of the most difficult problems, introducing a form of slavery. The numbers of people who are fraudulently take out of Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan for labor and sexual exploitation is increasing. The number of relatives in cases of trafficking in the border regions of the Tashkent region of Uzbekistan in South Kazakhstan region of Kazakhstan for the last year has doubled. There has been the same increase in the number of relatives of victims of trafficking that have tried to assist in their return from Kazakhstan.
   The majority of migrant workers that are from Uzbekistan are engaged in illegal employment. As a result, migrant workers fall outside the legal field and can not feel secure in the territory of another state. Because of their illegal status the migrant workers are deprived of social guarantees. They easily fall into the conditions of forced labor, which is characterized by poor conditions of work and life.
   Since 2006, there has been close cooperation between NGO “Sana Sezim” (Kazakhstan) and NGO “Istikbolli Avlod” (Uzbekistan) to address the problems of migrants. Through the course of 2008, by joint efforts, we were able to rescue and return about 30 victims of sexual or labor exploitation. Unfortunately, many victims of human trafficking, after their return, fear or do not know whom to ask for help to protect their rights. They do not have information about services that are provided to victims of trafficking and exploitation.
   The aim of the project – to prevent trafficking by providing legal assistance and to attract public attention to the protection of the rights of migrant workers as potential victims of trafficking.
   The project involves the following activities:

• Information campaign: the dissemination of 12000 leaflets "Migrant workers about their rights" among the potential victims of human trafficking (men and women aged 18 to 50 years);
• Legal services, and 6 mobile consultants for migrant workers, potential victims of trafficking;
• Operation of a telephone hotline and mobile communications 24 hours a day in the Russian and Uzbek languages;