Saturday, April 12, 2014

Anti-Trafficking Efforts in Kazakhstan

                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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