Russia must fight against the trafficking of migrant women, say UN experts
UN experts have urged Russia to act to end the trafficking and forced work of migrant women, often trapped in a form of“Slavery”. Experts said they had received information about “Dozens of women” Attracted in Russia by promises of employment in small shops, to then be confiscated their identity documents before being forced to work up to twenty hours per day without salary, in inhuman conditions.
“The victims would have been subjected to torture, sexual violence and forced abortions, and their children would be removed”can we read in a joint declaration of the UN special rapporteurs on human rights in Russia, on modern slavery, on trafficking and the rights of migrants. This is obviously a system “Deeply rooted” of “Extreme forms of exploitation and violence” Exhausting decades, recruiting its victims mainly in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, they stressed. Despite dozens of complaints from victims and civil society organizations since the 1990s, the Russian authorities have never launched a real investigation, they said.
The four rapporteurs, independent experts mandated by the Human Rights Council-who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations themselves-have deplored the refusal of the Russian authorities to register certain cases or their decision to classify surveys, “Ignoring the overwhelming evidence of coercion and abuse”. “The facts described reveal particularly disturbing patterns of trafficking in human beings and modern forms of slavery, made possible by systemic failures of the Russian legal and institutional framework”they said. “The absence of effective and rapid surveys and the fact that the authors are not held responsible for impunity which is unacceptable”.
Experts also expressed their concern about Russia’s inability to adopt a full legal framework to fight trafficking, as well as its criminalization of assistance to undocumented persons, dissuading victims from soliciting aid.
