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U.S. Decision Fails Forced Labor Victims in Uzbekistan.

Washington, DC – Today the U.S. government upgraded the Uzbek government’s ranking in its 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report to the Tier 2 Watch List, a category denoting nations that deserve special scrutiny, despite acknowledging that “government-compelled forced labor remained during the 2017 cotton harvest.” The Cotton Campaign believes that the 2017 harvest should have been the primary basis of the determination and that given the massive scale of the forced labor in last year’s harvest, the decision does not sufficiently reflect these most recent facts on the ground. Moreover, the Cotton Campaign is concerned that the decision to upgrade Uzbekistan, may prematurely diminish the government’s incentive to translate its recent commitments into action to end systematic forced labor.

Invisible and exploited in Kazakhstan: New Report Sheds Light on the Plight of Kyrgyz Migrant Workers and Their Family Members

Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children from Kyrgyzstan and neighbouring Central Asian states are forced to migrate to Kazakhstan in search of work. These individuals often fall victim to forced labour, unsafe and unsanitary working conditions, violations of the rights to maternity and childhood, as well as arbitrary arrests and deportations. FIDH and its partners have documented the plight of Kyrgyz migrants, in a report released today.

Uzbek Farmer: I would be glad to refuse to grow cocoons

Uzbekistan, a leading producer of silk cocoons, relies on forced labor for their production, which violates the rights of farmers and public-sector workers and exploits the vulnerability of the rural poor. Uzbek farmers must produce silk cocoons under coercion to fulfill government quotas and they must sell their cocoons to the government at the official procurement price, leaving them little or no profit, and in many cases in debt

The Price for Turkmen Cotton Is Too High

Turkmenistan may represent only 2% of the world’s cotton exports, but the rampant human rights violations in their cotton production demand our attention. Much of the country’s cotton is produced using a system of state-sponsored forced labor. This isn’t widely known, but Turkmenistan can’t fly under the radar and deliver goods produced with numerous human rights violations.

Uzbek Farmer: “I will definitely be bankrupt this year”

A monitor from Uzbek-German Forum interviewed a farmer from the Khorezm region who described his experience with the command system of management in the Uzbekistan’s agriculture sector. Farmers do not have the freedom to choose what crops to grow; the state sets the prices and can arbitrarily and punitively “redistribute” the land of the farm at any time, despite an existing lease, leaving farmers in a particularly vulnerable situation.

Ordered To Grow Red-Hot Chili Peppers, Uzbek Farmers May As Well Give ‘Em Away Now

Farmers in Uzbekistan’s tightly controlled agriculture sector have been ordered by state authorities to grow cotton since the waning days of the Soviet Union. But this year, under an order from President Shavkat Mirziyoev, some are now cultivating a crop they’ve never grown before — red-hot chili peppers. Reluctant new chili-pepper farmers in Uzbekistan’s southern Qashqadaryo region say they’ve been forced into a potentially crippling situation. That’s because regional officials have not signed a contract to sell their harvests through ChiliUz, a new state firm set up to facilitate the government’s chili-pepper decree.

One 47-year-old farmer in the region’s Shahrisabz district, who asked not to be named because he feared “retaliation” from authorities for speaking out about the problem, says he and other chili-pepper farmers have also been ordered by district officials to find foreign buyers for their harvests.

Cotton Campaign presents recommendations to end forced labor to government officials in Uzbekistan.

A first-ever delegation representing the Cotton Campaign presented recommendations on how to end systematic forced labor in the cotton sector to senior Uzbek government officials on its visit to Tashkent from May 10-16, 2018. The delegation also consulted independently with civil society activists, farmers and representatives of international agencies and ambassadors of other interested governments at this hopeful time for reform in Uzbekistan.

Report: We pick cotton out of fear: systematic forced labor and the accountability gap in Uzbekistan

The 96-page report, “‘We Pick Cotton Out of Fear’: Systematic Forced Labor and the Accountability Gap in Uzbekistan,” details how the government forced education and medical workers, other public sector employees, private sector workers, people receiving benefits, and some college and university students to pick cotton involuntarily.

U.S. Customs Halts Imports of Forced Labor Cotton and Cotton Goods from Turkmenistan.

The Cotton Campaign welcomes the decision of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a law enforcement agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to issue a Withhold Release Order (WRO), formally banning the importation of “all Turkmenistan cotton or products produced in whole or in part with Turkmenistan cotton.”