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Relatives of Sanjar Baratov, a 33-year-old farmer from the Jizzakh region in Uzbekistan, said that he took his own life because he felt desperate after Enforcement Bureau officers confiscated his property for failure to pay off a bank loan.

NewsBy news@labourmission.org2018-12-04

One of the soldiers told Ozodlik that despite the lack of cotton in the fields, ten thousand soldiers of the Uzbek Armed Forces are picking cotton in the Akaltyn district of the Syrdarya region. An employee of the regional administration later confirmed this information

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Soldiers finish cotton harvest in Turkmenistan

NewsBy news@labourmission.org2018-12-04

Conscripts have been harvesting the last of the cotton in at least two regions in Turkmenistan, as low pay and freezing weather put off hired laborers.
Conscripts were sent to pick cotton in several districts in the southeast Mary region at the end of November. They wore military uniform and travelled to the fields in army Ural and Kamaz trucks.

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Statement of Executive Committee of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic

NewsBy news@labourmission.org2018-11-30

On behalf of its members the BKDP Executive Committee expresses its deep indignation at continuing attacks of the authorities of Kazakhstan on the rights and freedoms of workers and our brothers and sisters from independent trade unions of Kazakhstan. The attacks are accompanied by reprisals, prosecutions, and threats to use physical violence against leaders and activists of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KNPRK) which recently has been unlawfully dissolved by the authorities.

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Labour Rights Laboratory in Central Asia

NewsBy news@labourmission.org2018-11-30

The participants of the joint Labour Rights Laboratory run by the International Labour Rights Monitoring Mission in Central Asia as part of the Bir Duino film festival, Involving representatives of independent trade union and human rights organisations from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Germany, Norway, and the USA

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De glemte diktaturene

NewsBy news@labourmission.org2018-11-28

Skyting av streikende arbeidere, angrep på journalister og statsdrevet slavearbeid. Diktaturene i Sentral-Asia plager bokstavelig talt livet av egen befolkning – til øredøvende stillhet.

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Statement of PERC Youth Committee on Trade Unions in Kazakhstan

NewsBy news@labourmission.org2018-11-27

On October the 22nd 2018, the Pan-European Regional Council (PERC) Executive Committee adopted a recommendation to the ITUC General Council that the membership of the Federation of Trade Unions of Republics of Kazakhstan (FPRK) must be suspended.

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Kazakhstan: Stop repression and physical attacks on leaders of independent unions; hands off Larisa Kharkova, Erlan Baltabai and Dmitriy Senyavskiy

NewsBy news@labourmission.org2018-11-25

Support the campaign “Kazakhstan: Stop repression and physical attacks on leaders of independent unions; hands off Larisa Kharkova, Erlan Baltabai and Dmitriy Senyavskiy”, running in partnership with the International Trade Union Confederation, IndustriALL, KNPRK – the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Kazakhstan ,Confederation of Labour of Russia (KTR), Industri Energi and the Arthur Svensson Foundation.

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Campaigners challenge U.N. over forced labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry

NewsBy news@labourmission.org2018-11-24

Rights groups on Friday disputed findings by the United Nations showing Uzbekistan has nearly eliminated forced labor from its cotton industry, saying that exploitation is still “systematic”

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Union activists face new repression and attacks in Kazakhstan

NewsBy news@labourmission.org2018-11-23

Early in November, Dmitry Seniyavskiy, a trade union leader of the local branch of the Fuel and Energy Workers’ Union (FEWU) in the Karaganda Region was attacked and brutally beaten by a band of unidentified goons. FEWU leader Erlan Baltabai is under arrest on trumped-up accusations.

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Cotton pickers struggle with low pay, poor crop in southern Turkmenistan

NewsBy news@labourmission.org2018-11-16

Harvesting by hand remains the norm in the cotton fields of Turkmenistan’s southern Mary region. Despite reports in the state-run media of the widespread use of cotton harvesters, observers for Alternative Turkmenistan News failed to find any evidence of the machines out in the fields. Instead, the observers estimate that some 5,600 public sector workers – teachers, doctors, cleaners and others – are forced to go cotton picking every day in the region. In addition, many workers are taken cotton picking for extended periods of 10 days or a month.

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