Forced labour has been identified as a major problem in Russia and three other former Soviet republics in the latest Trafficking in Persons Report from the US state department. 

Forced labour occurs across a wide range of sectors in Russia, often exploiting the millions of migrant labourers that flock to the region’s biggest economy. On a smaller scale, state sponsored forced labour also takes place in Belarus, with the unemployed and addicts among those affected. Meanwhile, despite heavy international pressure, citizens of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are forced to take part in the two countries’ cotton harvests often under dangerous working conditions. 

All four countries ranked Tier 3 in the report – the lowest of the three categories assigned to countries worldwide. Tier 3 comprises countries that do not fully meet the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so. This can include countries where government officials have been complicit in severe forms of trafficking. Governments of countries on Tier 3 may be subject to restrictions on assistance from the US government. 

The majority of former Soviet and Southeast European countries are either Tier 2 or on the Tier 2 watchlist, which includes countries that do not meet TVPA minimum standards but where the governments are trying to comply. Two EU member states — Bulgaria and Hungary — are on the Tier 2 watchlist, along with Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia. This contrasts with Central Europe, where most countries are in Tier 1. 

Exploitation, including forced labour, came into the international spotlight in Russia with recent revelations about the treatment of construction workers, many of them migrants, on stadiums being built ahead of the 2018 World Cup, as detailed in a June report from Human Rights Watch (HRW).  

A shocking expose by Norwegian football website Josimar quotes international experts who described North Korean workers at the Zenit stadium construction site in St Petersburg as “both slaves and hostages”. Housed in storage containers at a secure area next to the stadium, the North Koreans worked extremely long hours with the largest share of their salaries sent back to the government in Pyongyang. This came to international attention when one worker was found dead, apparently of a heart attack, in his container. 

The exploitation of North Koreans in Russia is by no means limited to the construction sector. “The DPRK sends approximately 20,000 North Korean citizens to Russia annually for work in a variety of sectors, including logging in Russia’s Far East—with approximately 30,000 North Korean citizens officially registered in Russia; reportedly many of these North Korean citizens are subjected to conditions of forced labor,” says the state department report. 

It warns that an agreement between the two countries signed in 2016 “may exacerbate these conditions by enabling Russian authorities to repatriate North Koreans residing “illegally” in Russia … despite reports that DPRK authorities arrest, imprison, subject to forced labour, torture, and sometimes execute repatriated trafficking victims.”

North Koreans make up just a small share of the estimated 12mn labour migrants in Russia, which include around 1.5mn irregular migrants. Outside the construction sector, labour trafficking has been reported in a wide range of sectors including manufacturing, logging, agricultural, brick factories, textiles, grocery stores, domestic service, forced begging, waste sorting and street sweeping. 

“Many of these migrant workers experience exploitative labor conditions characteristic of trafficking cases, such as withholding of identity documents, non-payment for services rendered, physical abuse, lack of safety measures, or extremely poor living conditions,” the US state department report says. 

The report also makes the link between organised crime and official corruption, saying that organised crime syndicates sometimes play a role in exploiting labour migrants, while “corruption among some government officials and within some state agencies creates an environment enabling some trafficking crimes.”

Belarus' "parasite tax"

In neighbouring Belarus, “State-sponsored forced labour continues to be an area of concern,” says the report. 

In April 2015, a government decree was adopted, requiring unemployed people either to pay a fee of $250 a year to the state — dubbed the “parasite tax” — with those who failed to pay up required to do compulsory community service. This sparked rare demonstrations in the country, which eventually grew into a wider anti-government campaign. On March 25, designated Freedom Day by the opposition, riot police arrested hundreds of peaceful protesters at rallies in Minsk and other cities. 

Aside from the “parasite tax”, the US state department report also cites that up to 6,700 Belarusians suffering from alcoholism or drug dependencies were held in so-called “medical labour centres” as of June 2015. They face punishments such as solitary confinement if they refuse to work, according to the ILO Committee of Experts. Parents who have had their parental rights removed are also subjected to compulsory labour, with the government retaining 70% of their wages, while military conscripts are reportedly forced to carry out work unrelated to military service. 

There has been some progress, specifically the repeal of a decree that prevented state workers in wood processing from leaving their jobs. Overall, however, “the government maintained policies that actively compelled the forced labor of its citizens,” the report says. 

Central Asia's dangerous harvest

In the two Central Asian states, forced labour is mostly employed in the annual cotton harvest. Uzbekistan has long been notorious for the use of forced labour, including child labour, in its cotton harvest, a practice that sparked a boycott of Uzbek cotton by international brands as diverse as Zara, Nike, Primark and Stella McCartney. In 2016, the Cotton Campaign, which campaigns against exploitation of workers in Uzbekistan and other countries, described forced labour in the Uzbek cotton harvest as “unique” in the world, given its enforcement through a state-controlled system. The campaign organisation also detailed some of the hazards of working in the annual harvest: “Cotton picking is dangerous work. Each year, the forced-labour system of cotton production has claimed the lives of several Uzbek citizens, and many forced to pick cotton are exposed to unknown chemicals in the fields, unsanitary housing, and lack of safe drinking water.”

In recent years, Tashkent has made some efforts to stop forced labour and it made an announcement that it would stop using child labour. Despite this, “Government-compelled forced labour remained widespread during the 2016 cotton harvest” says the state department report. 

It claims the government continued to demand that farmers and local officials fulfil state-assigned cotton production quotas, while the low prices set for both cotton and labour made it impossible to attract enough voluntary workers. This “led to the wide-scale mobilisations of adult labourers. There were anecdotal reports of the continued use of child labourers in some locations,” the report claimed.

This was previously revealed by HRW, which in June published a new study based on two years of field work and leaked government documents, that revealed that Uzbek children were being pushed to pick cotton as late as autumn 2016, it said in a statement. It also accused the World Bank and International Labour Organisation (ILO) of deliberately looking past the continued use of child and forced labour in Uzbekistan. 

Forced labour in agriculture, in particular cotton, is also a serious problem in neighbouring Turkmenistan. “The government continued to use the forced labour of reportedly tens of thousands of its adult citizens in the harvest during the reporting period,” the US state department report said. 

It lists university students, private-sector institutions, soldiers and public sector workers (including teachers, doctors, nurses, and others) as being forced “to pick cotton without payment and under the threat of penalty”. For example, public sector workers faced dismissal, reduced work hours, or salary deductions if they refused, while farmers were threatened with loss of land if they did not meet government-imposed quotas. 

However, the situation in the Eurasian region was not all bad. The bright spots within the region are Armenia and Georgia, both of which are now ranked Tier 1 thanks to concerted efforts by their governments to tackle human trafficking and its consequences. 

The Georgian government in particular was commended for its “serious and sustained” efforts. Tbilisi has adopted a national action plan to combat trafficking in 2017-2018, and has continued to take actions including proactive investigations and screening vulnerable populations for trafficking indicators, as well as operating specialised shelters and paying compensation to victims. Despite these efforts, however, Georgia remains a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking, with the tourist resorts of the Adjara region singled out as hotspots for forced prostitution. 

In Armenia, which was upgraded to Tier 1 back in 2013, the government has also adopted a national action plan, assigned funds to compensate trafficking victims and made efforts to identify more victims.