Tuesday, April 04, 2006

More than 60 trafficked women detained

[On 14 Feb 2006] Kyrgyz security forces on Tuesday removed dozens of young women from a plane in the southern city of Osh set to transport them to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), allegedly for sexual exploitation. ...

Some detained girls from Uzbekistan ... said that they had been offered jobs as cooks and waitresses in the Gulf state. "I was going to work as a cook in a restaurant there," Zalina, an 18-year-old from the central Uzbek city of Samarkand, said, wiping her tears away. Many of the Uzbek women detained were from Samarkand and said they were going to Dubai to take up "an invitation from a sister living there."

However, some appeared to have no illusions about what lay ahead of them. "I knew that I would be making money there, perhaps through sex work, but I don't have any choice. I am an orphan, with no job and no means to survive," said Olesia, 20, from the eastern Uzbek city of Ferghana.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Central Asia is a growing region of origin for human trafficking, with women mainly going to the Gulf states. The main country of origin is Uzbekistan, given that it has the largest population in the region.

Full article here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I wanted to thank you for posting this article and others. The knowledge you are giving here is needed for change.