To focus attention on protecting workers from Central Asian countries who are migrating abroad to earn their livelihoods, the Solidarity Center was part of a broad coalition that organized a high-level conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to coincide with UN World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. The two-day conference, which took place July 30 to 31, provided a forum for sharing best practices and strategies to combat forced labor, included representatives from regional and global representatives of civil society organizations, state institutions and organizations, trafficking experts and the U.S. government.
“Collaboration on labor protections can potentially ensure safer and fairer working conditions for everyone in the region,” says Solidarity Center Europe and Central Asia Regional Program Director Rudy Porter.
As a percentage of population, forced labor in Central Asia and Europe is the second highest in the world–estimated at more than 4 million people. The U.S. Department of State’s 2023 Trafficking in Persons report details forced labor across Central Asia, including in Kazakhstan, where debt-based coercion of migrant workers is reportedly increasing. Globally, there were almost 8 million international migrants from Central Asian countries by mid-year 2020, more than 60 percent of whom were in Russia. A Solidarity Center-supported survey of hundreds of Kyrgyz women migrant workers across 19 Russian cities in 2021 documented brutal conditions on the job for these women, including sexual violence.
The conference, “Strengthening National and International Partnerships in Combating Trafficking in Persons,” was co-organized with the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Kyrgyz Republic’s Parliament, the EU Mission, the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan and global funder Winrock International. Also participating were Solidarity Center partner worker rights organizations Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights (KIBHR), Kyrgyzstan’s Insan-Leilek and Migrant Workers Union, and Uzbekistan’s Istiqbolli Avlod. The European Union, OSCE, UNODC and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) cosponsored.
The Solidarity Center participated on a panel on countering forced labor through promotion of fundamental labor rights in the region and highlighted a finding from recently completed research* that almost 60 percent of Central Asian migrant workers surveyed do not know what forced labor is—which increases their vulnerability to unscrupulous employers or recruiters. Solidarity Center staff also used the panel as an opportunity to present recommendations emphasizing the role of labor inspectorates, unions and private and state recruitment agencies in combating forced labor.
The conference builds from a milestone convening the Solidarity Center organized in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, last year, where a joint regional action plan on combating forced labor and advancing worker rights was adopted by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan stakeholders, including government ministries and agencies, non-governmental and civil society sectors, and international organizations.
Forced labor is found increasingly in the private economy, in labor-intensive and under-regulated sectors such as construction, agriculture, fisheries, domestic work and mining, reports the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Worldwide, 28 million people were trapped in forced labor in 2021, a number that represents an increase of more than one-third in only five years. Globally, forced labor in the private economy is estimated to generate $236 billion in illegal profits per year, an increase of more than $64 billion since 2014.
The UN’s 2018 Global Compact on migration, which sets out a cooperative framework for achieving safe migration within a rights-based framework, includes a process for implementation and review of UN member states’ progress on the issue.
* Currently available in Russian; English translation forthcoming.