Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Today, on 17 June, in the form of video conference, a meeting of the National Commission for Combating Trafficking in Persons and Forced Labor took place, which was attended by members of the Commission, senior officials of ministries and departments, as well as representatives of the media.

During the meeting, which was chaired by the Chairman of the Senate Oliy Majlis, the chairman of the National Commission to Combat Trafficking in Persons and Forced Labor, Tanzila Narbaeva, the work carried out by the National Commission to Combat Trafficking in Persons and Forced Labor and the challenges ahead were discussed. Along with this, the draft Roadmap for implementing the proposals reflected in the information prepared by the National Rapporteur on the work carried out in 2019 in the field of combating human trafficking and forced labor was considered.

It was noted that national legislation on combating trafficking in persons and forced labor was being improved. So, only in 2019, in order to regulate activities in this direction, 15 regulatory legal acts were adopted. In addition, 6 conventions and protocols of the ILO and the International Organization for Migration have been ratified. In order to strengthen liability measures for the admission of child labor and forced labor, the Code of Administrative Responsibility and the Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan have been amended and supplemented. At the same time, taking into account international experience, the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Combating Trafficking in Human Beings” has been developed in a new edition.

As a result of preventive and organizational measures to combat human trafficking and forced labor in 2019, the number of crimes related to human trafficking decreased by 22%. In respect of 259 officials who allowed forced labor and did not pay wages on time, as well as 56 officials who did not create working conditions, administrative fines were applied in the manner prescribed by law.

Particular attention was also paid to issues of assistance to victims of trafficking in persons, their rehabilitation, as well as protecting the interests of citizens abroad. In particular, in 2019, the Republican Rehabilitation Center provided medical, psychological and legal assistance to 220 victims of human trafficking, 113 of which were employed. 3 thousand 938 citizens were provided with work abroad, about 530 thousand US dollars were recovered in favor of labor migrants who could not receive their salaries in a timely manner.

In addition, a third-party monitoring of the use of child and forced labor was carried out jointly with the ILO in 2019 during the cotton season, and national monitoring was conducted by the Federation of Trade Unions. According to the monitoring results, it was noted that in Uzbekistan, the use of child and forced labor was systematically eliminated in cotton growing.

During the meeting, along with positive work in this area, attention was focused on some of the existing problems that need to be addressed. In particular, today there are cases of forced involvement of workers by the heads of some local khokimiyats, ministries and departments, and their subordinate units to types of labor that are not related to their functional duties.

During the event, it was noted that at the bottom link, work efficiency is low, people suffer due to one ill-considered action, which negatively affects the image of the state.

Although the number of crimes related to trafficking in persons has decreased in 2019 compared to 2018, the overall structure of such crimes has a high rate of crimes related to trafficking in newborns. In particular, in 2018 the number of crimes related to trafficking in babies amounted to 38% of crimes related to trafficking in human beings; in 2019, this figure increased by 43%.

At the same time, it was said that the mechanism for the legal solution of appeals related to trafficking in persons, the identification and judicial review of these types of crimes, and the principle of the inevitability of punishment was ineffectively established. In 2019, only 94 out of 710 complaints related to trafficking in persons were prosecuted, which means 13%.

In addition, the meeting talked about the work carried out under this Roadmap. Thus, it is planned to develop a draft law “On Migration”, further improve the draft Code on non-governmental non-profit organizations with the participation of representatives of international experts, civil society, consider ratifying ILO Conventions No. 17, 183, 187 and further improve work in this direction.

Also at the meeting, reports of subcommissions and territorial commissions were heard.

After discussions, this Roadmap has been approved.