ASTANA, 30 July 2014 - The United Nations Office in Kazakhstan and the IOM Coordination office for Central Asia in Kazakhstan calls on the Government of Kazakhstan, international community and civil society to unite in the fight against human trafficking in Kazakhstan. The July 30th 2014 event to observe, for the first time, the “World Day against Trafficking in Persons” was organized with the support of the Embassy of South African Republic in Kazakhstan, the Embassy of the United States of America in Kazakhstan, the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in Kazakhstan and KAZGUU University.

The UN General Assembly decided by its resolution 68/192 of 18 December 2013 (‘Improving the coordination of efforts against trafficking in persons’) to observe July 30 as the World Day against Trafficking in Persons. This date marks the day of the adoption of the UN Global Plan of Action against Trafficking in Persons, in 2010. The first World Day against Trafficking in Persons is commemorated this year, on 30 July.

Human trafficking is a coercive and exploitative process starting with recruitment in the place of origin and continuing with exploitation in the places of transit and destination. Despite the fact that in general trafficking involves crossing at least one international boarder, it can also occur within a single country.

IOM’s statistics for 2004-2014 demonstrates that almost half of victims of trafficking assisted by IOM in Kazakhstan are citizens of Kazakhstan mainly trafficked within the country. The rest of the caseload is represented by people trafficked to Kazakhstan from Central Asian countries, Russia, China, Moldova, Philippines and other. Every seventh victim of trafficking is a minor. Trafficking for labour exploitation is a growing concern for Kazakhstan and in the past three years it prevails over the number of trafficking cases for sexual exploitation.

Kazakhstan has made a sufficient progress in combating trafficking in persons by passing the 2013 amendments to the anti-trafficking legislation, which allowed enhance penalty for trafficking in persons crime and also put human trafficking definition align with the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Now the consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation shall be irrelevant where any of the means, such as threat, position of vulnerability, have been used.

The country has been ranked Tier 2 in the 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report as a country which is making significant efforts to combat human trafficking, but not fully comply with minimum standards. The main report’s recommendations for the country are as follows: to improve efforts to identify and refer for assistance victims of trafficking, offer temporary legal status to foreign victims and provide legal alternatives to forced repatriation, develop the mechanism to provide longer-term shelter and rehabilitation to victims of trafficking, to continue to increase the number of victims who receive government-funded assistance by funding additional trafficking shelters, to strengthen the capacity of police, prosecutors, and judges to investigate trafficking cases.

In February 2014, the amendments to the Law on Special Social Services were adopted by the Parliament and signed by the President of Kazakhstan, which provide clear definition of cruel treatment as an action related to domestic violence, human trafficking and other types of exploitation, slavery and kidnapping. The amendments also allow victims of cruel treatment be provided with special social services regardless of the fact of initiation of criminal investigation. Now IOM, in consultation with all stakeholders, is implementing a project to assist the government agencies to develop bylaws to identify criteria for assessing the presence of cruel treatment of victims of domestic violence and human trafficking and to outline special social services for victims of cruel treatment. The final documents will be presented at the national dialogue in September 2014.

In August 2014, IOM in close cooperation with partner government agencies will launch a project on improving identification and referral of victims of trafficking, which will provide comprehensive training for government officials, including police officers and labour inspectorate to better identify victims and refer them for assistance.

Also, in 2014, IOM will support the Human Rights Commission under the President of Kazakhstan to prepare a Special Report on Combating Trafficking in Persons in Kazakhstan. The Special Report will provide recommendations to strengthen the anti-trafficking response of Kazakhstan. 

For any further information and media requests, please contact Ms. Anissa Kuanova, akuanova@iom.int, tel. +7 7172 790346 (ext. 110), mobile: + 7 705 555 0016