Three Uzbek women suspected of being forced into the sex trade are detained by police in Jakarta file photo epa How many people each year fall victim to human trafficking is of course hard to gauge. But the International Organization for Migration believes a growing number of Central Asians are being trafficked — and that the region's richest country, Kazakhstan, is now becoming a destination country. He may even make you work for free. This is one of the pieces of advice offered by the website of the International Organization for Migration's Kazakh office.
But Diana from Uzbekistan did not read the website. Nor did she have anyone to give her a similar warning when she was offered work in Kazakhstan. Of course, we agreed, my friend Katya and myself," Diana says. The rest does not seem to differ from the typical story of other women trafficked to another country and forced into prostitution: when the two young women arrived in Kazakhstan, a pimp took their passports away, and forced them to provide sexual services.
What happened then is also a familiar tale. Taxi drivers were 'her' people. She used to phone them herself. We'd go [to clients] and work. Then we'd finish the work, get the money, phone her, be taken back, and there we had to give the money to her. That was it. She bought us what we needed but took all the money away.
The administrative heart of the Kazakh capital, Astana. She is also an example of a new trend: Kazakhstan has become a destination country for Central Asians tricked into the sex trade. Unfortunately, this has brought this negative result.
The exact number of people trafficked from other Central Asian countries into Kazakhstan is unknown. Zhanbolatova says that in IOM's Almaty office provided legal, medical, and psychological assistance to 49 people, of whom 38 were women.
