The US
State Department in the 2013 Trafficking in Persons Report rated Kazakhstan as
a Tier 2 country. Astana has made efforts to meet the minimum established
standards, but current policy still does not fully comply.[1]
This is partially to the complexity of the problem in Kazakhstan. The country
serves as not only a country of origin for trafficking victims destined for
Russia or Europe, but also functions as a transit country for victims en route
from other Central Asian states, and a destination country for victims from the
poorer states of Central Asia such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.[2]
However, equally important contributing factors has been the complicity of
government officials in the trade, and an inadequate law enforcement response
to the problem.
The
Kazakh government was initially slow to address the development of human
trafficking during the 1990s, but growth of problems such as the spread of
HIV/AIDS that accompanied the rise finally spurred action.[3]
The government has made efforts to enact effective legislation. Trafficking in
persons for both sexual exploitation and labor is banned by Articles 128, 133,
125(3b), 126(3b), 270, and 132-1 of the Kazakh penal code. The US State
Department has rated the established penalties of up to 15 years’ imprisonment
adequately severe. In 2012, the Kazakh Supreme Court further clarified how the
judiciary should interpret human trafficking, and ruled that trafficking
victims could not be prosecuted for crimes committed as result of being
trafficked. Also in 2012, an Interagency Trafficking in Persons Working Group,
chaired by the Minister of Justice, was established to coordinate national
anti-trafficking efforts. Moreover, the order issued by the Ministry of
Education and Science, which allowed the children of migrant workers to attend
school alongside regular Kazakh citizens, has likely helped these children avoid
being exploited through forced labor.[4]
At the international level, Kazakhstan has focused on addressing the problem
regionally through the Commonwealth of Independent States, and as member of the
Budapest Process, a forum designed to develop comprehensive migration reform
and counter-trafficking policies across Eurasia.[5]
Astana
has funneled funding into training courses to aid law enforcement in
identifying, investigating and prosecuting human traffickers, and made efforts
to improve international coordination with neighboring law enforcement
agencies. However, while the
legislation, funding, and training illustrate an intent to combat the problem,
a lack of results speaks to deeper issues. The investigation and prosecution of
trafficking cases decreased from 2011 through 2012. Trafficking-focused NGO’s
have continued to complain of antiquated tactics used by law enforcement that
do not take a victim-centered approach.
Victim-centered approaches focus
equally on the investigation and prosecution of the traffickers, as on finding
and providing support to victims. Adequate social services should be provided
to assisting in the recovery and stabilization of trafficking victims, not only
for the health of the victim, but also to ensure the victim is ready and able
to aid the prosecutors in the identification and successful prosecution of
perpetrators. This requires a fundamental change in how law enforcement
perceives the crime, which is too often addressed as petty, insignificant, and
not worth their time.[6]
This ingrained perception leads to trafficking victims often being ignored and
discounted, investigations are carried out nonchalantly and yield few results,
or victims being treated as criminals themselves and prosecuted for immigration
violations and/or deported.
Inadequate law enforcement response
has been further compounded by the role many government officials and members
of law enforcement play in carrying out the trade. Official complicity often
results in shielding traffickers from prosecution, further abusing trafficking
victims, and physically engaging in the transport of victims. Police officers
are in a unique position to establish connections between traffickers and
employers seeking forced labor that is often misused.[7]
A lack of enforcement will continually
hamper any attempt to enact effective rules and regulations. Given the likely
levels of profit officials involved in the investigation and prosecution of
trafficking reap from the trade, it will be difficult to comprehensively
address the problem. At its core, this issue stems from the high levels of
corruption across the Kazakh state. Transparency International’s Corruption
Perceptions Index ranks Kazakhstan 140th out of 177.[8]
While much of the corruption is centered on profit skimmed from more legitimate
industries, particularly energy and construction, the lack of rule of law and a
bureaucracy that does not effectively punish and prevent offenders will encourage
officials interested in making a quick profit to engage in more illicit
industries such as human trafficking.
[1] http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2013/210548.htm
[2] http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66247
[3]
http://www.protectionproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/kazakhstan.pdf
[5]
http://www.icmpd.org/Budapest-Process.1528.0.html
[6]
https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/victim-centered-approach
Goodey
[7]
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2013/210548.htm
[8] http://www.transparency.org/country#KAZ
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