Industry, Advocates Urge State to Downgrade Uzbekistan on Human Trafficking List
Thirty-five retail and advocacy entities urged the agency to downgrade Uzbekistan back to Tier 3 in the State Department’s 2016 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, claiming a lack of action on its commitments to end forced labor, in a Jan. 30 letter (here) to the agency. The 2015 TIP report improved the country to Tier 2 Watch List. “Any other placement would reward the government of Uzbekistan in spite of its continued, flagrant disregard of its national laws and international commitments,” the association, dubbed the “Cotton Campaign,” said in its letter. “The Tier 3 placement would, on the other hand, communicate the need to end forced labor to the government of Uzbekistan.
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A decade of global pressure, including placing Uzbekistan at Tier 3 in the 2013 and 2014 TIP Reports, encouraged the Uzbek government to dramatically reduce its use of forced child labor, the letter said. Following the upgrade to Tier 2 Watch List in the 2015 TIP Report, the Uzbek government fully implemented its forced-labor system.” Among the allegations raised by the coalition, which includes the American Apparel & Footwear Association and the National Retail Federation, are that the Uzbek government set yearly production quotas on cotton farmers and used coercion to enforce them. The Cotton Campaign said the Uzbek government will take actions to comply with minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act when it faces consequences from its current inaction. The letter follows an August 2014 letter signed by several of the same industry groups calling for the Obama Administration to work toward stopping forced labor in Uzbekistan (see 14081916).