ASTANA, 30 July 2015. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the IOM Coordination office for Central Asia in Kazakhstan and partner agencies conduct the Information campaign “Let’s stop trafficking together!” across the country.

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.

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 internally within a single country.

During January, 2004 – June, 2015 IOM has provided assistant to 1235 Victims of trafficking in Kazakhstan and almost half of victims of trafficking assisted 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. As per IOM’s figure, every seventh victim of trafficking is a minor. Trafficking for labour exploitation is a growing concern for Kazakhstan and in the past four years it prevails over trafficking for sexual exploitation.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 300 crime cases in the field of human trafficking have been recorded and investigated during 2014; out of this number, 23 of cases are crimes against minors.

Kazakhstan has been ranked Tier 2 in the “2014 Trafficking in Persons Report” of US State Department. According to the report although the country makes significant efforts to combat human trafficking, doesn’t fully comply with minimum international standards. The main report’s recommendations urge Kazakhstan 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;  continue to increase the number of victims who receive government-funded assistance by funding additional trafficking shelters;  strengthen the capacity of police, prosecutors, and judges to investigate trafficking cases.

Kazakhstan has made sufficient progress in combating trafficking in persons by adopting new Crime and Administrative codes; active work of the Governmental Inter-Agency Commissions on combatting Smuggling of migrants and human trafficking; developing and adopting National Action plan on combatting human trafficking for 2015-2017; adopting of the Special report «On current issues affecting Human Rights Protection in area of combating trafficking in persons in the Republic of Kazakhstan» developed by the Human Rights Commission under the President of Kazakhstan, with the support of IOM sub regional office for Central Asia and funded by the  IOM Development Fund; developing  Standards on providing special social services for victims of trafficking; and signing  guidelines, developed in cooperation with IOM,  for officers of police units and labour inspectors on identification and referral of victims of trafficking. It is worth mentioning, as well, the active work of the Governmental Inter-Agency Commission on combatting child exploitation.

Within the Information campaign “Let’s stop trafficking together!”, during July 30 and 10 August 2015, IOM in close cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, partner NGOs and other international organizations conduct a number of events, in various oblasts in Kazakhstan,  including awareness raising campaigns on human trafficking and exploitation of child labour, flash-mobs, roundtables, conferences, competitions, discussions and meetings with representatives of local government agencies, NGOs and media.

Thereby guests and residents of Astana can follow information flash-mobs “Let’s stop trafficking together!” at the capital’s railway station and in the trade and entertainment center “Khan Shatyr”. The events are co-organized by Private fund “Korgau Astana”, the Department of internal affairs of Astana city, the Transport Department of internal affairs, the Programme Office of OSCE and IOM in partnership with JSC “Vokzal Service” and the Administration of trade and entertainment center “Khan Shatyr”.

For any further information and details, please contact iomastana@iom.int, tel. +7 7172 790345