National conference on human trafficking opens in Dushanbe

A national conference on human trafficking opened in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on Tuesday, the first of its kind in the mountainous Central Asian state. "Over half a million Tajiks regularly leave the country to seek work abroad and the risk of being trafficked is increasing with alarming rates," Nigina Mamadjanova, counter trafficking focal point for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in Tajikistan told IRIN. Although generally targeting women to work in the sex industry in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Gulf states, many Tajik men have also fallen victim to traffickers in the form of forced labour, she maintained. Organised by the IOM, in cooperation with the Tajik government, the two-day event brings together a host of participants and experts, including representatives from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and the US, as well as NGOs and other international organisations working on the protection of migrants' rights. While there are no exact figures on the number of people being trafficked, the issue remains a source of concern for the government and NGOs on the ground given the number of Tajik migrants leaving the country through illegal means. According to Mamadjanova, the main goal of the conference is to raise the level of awareness. "Only through an information campaign can the population receive the necessary information it needs about the dangers of trafficking," the IOM official said, noting a mechanism of reintegration and assistance for the victims of trafficking needed to be developed - including psychological rehabilitation. In an effort to raise such awareness, Internews, an international non-profit group supporting open media worldwide, has been working closely with the IOM training media professionals on how to produce social advertisements for radio and TV spots. "These spots are now broadcast regularly by 14 independent TV stations in Tajikistan, and also by three independent radio stations," Franz Wennberg, country director for the NGO told IRIN in Dushanbe, noting that the public announcements also included phone numbers to hot lines where additional information could be sought. "One of the problems for many Tajiks is how little they are informed about what awaits them in Russia [the primary destination for Tajik labour migrants], and also about their legal rights and obligations," Wennberg explained. "This lack of knowledge obviously makes it easier for corrupt state officials and criminal structures to harass and exploit Tajik labour migrants," he added, noting the information campaigns by Internews and the IOM were working to mitigate that. But despite the challenge, over the past three years Tajikistan has made strong inroads in combating the global problem, Mamadjanova maintained. The impoverished former Soviet republic was the first country among the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries to sign the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and two additional protocols and ratified on 29 May 2002. Subsequently, Tajikistan prepared draft legislation on the trafficking in persons which was now in its last stage of consideration. According to one IOM report, over 700,000 women and children are trafficked across borders each year worldwide. CIS countries are becoming the most important geographical source of trafficking in women in Asia, with the Central Asian states of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan being no exception. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, economic hardship and widespread unemployment, made the desire to emigrate abroad even stronger, providing a more conducive environment for traffickers to recruit, cheat, abuse and exploit their victims.