While the letters offered no official status to the migrants, they allowed victims to remain in the Moscow region without risk of deportation or prosecution while police investigated their trafficking case. The government did not develop or employ a formal system to guide officials in proactive identification of victims or their referral to available services. Driving the trade is the demand for commercial sexual exploitation. • Screen for trafficking indicators before deporting migrants, including from the DPRK. Although government representatives publicly stated authorities asked DPRK workers to leave voluntarily, it was not evident that authorities screened workers for trafficking indicators or offered them options to legally remain in the country. • Increase efforts to raise public awareness of both sex and labor trafficking, including among minors. The U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking In Persons report is aimed at curbing human trafficking. The offer of US$ 500 for her help in bringing back merchandise to sell in the Russian Federation seemed lucrative. The government made no efforts to develop public awareness of forced labor or sex trafficking and provided no funds to NGOs to carry out prevention and awareness campaigns. Authorities lacked a process for the identification of victims and their referral to care. An NGO reported some hospitals began to issue birth certificates to all children born in the country, regardless of the parents’ immigration status. Throughout 2018, the government maintained bilateral contracts with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) under which the DPRK operated work camps in Russia and subjected thousands of North Korean workers to forced labor. Although human trafficking in Russia is a massive problem, there are tangible steps that can be taken to relieve the extent of this issue. Traffickers lure minors from state and municipal orphanages to forced begging, forced criminality, child pornography, and sex trafficking, and use by armed groups in the Middle East. Russian criminal groups threaten family members in order to coerce women into prostitution in Russia and abroad. The last dedicated trafficking shelters closed in 2015 due to lack of funding; however, government-funded homeless shelters could accommodate Russian and foreign victims. There were limited examples of government cooperation with civil society. There were two media reports of government-compelled labor of civil servants for snow removal; in one of them the government decided to investigate the issue. However, inconsistent with the definition of trafficking under international law, these articles established the use of force, fraud, or coercion as aggravating factors, rather than essential elements of the crime. “The Borgen Project is an incredible nonprofit organization that is addressing poverty and hunger and working towards ending them.” Despite the lack of significant efforts, the government took some steps to address trafficking, including by removing officials who may have been complicit in forced labor, facilitating the return of Russian children from Iraq and Syria, and identifying some victims, including foreign nationals. The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a scathing report which features an incriminating list of people Donald Trump chose as his partners for potential projects in Russia. Similar to the previous reporting period, the government took steps to limit or ban the activities of other civil society groups, including some dedicated to anti-trafficking activities. Law enforcement training centers provided instruction on trafficking identification. Meanwhile, all the other countries previously part of the Soviet Union have passed over 100 laws against human trafficking. Currently, Russia is facing a human trafficking crisis and yet, it is doing little to prevent this issue and protect those human trafficking already affects. Efforts to crack down on human trafficking in Russia focus not only on the men, women, and children who are illegally shipped out of Russia to undergo forced labor and sexual exploitation in other countries, but also those who are illegally brought into Russia from abroad. The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or forced labor. • Amend the trafficking law to align the definition of trafficking with international standards. It is a destination country for migrant labor from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, making it second in the world for migration. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extraction of organs or tissues, including for surrogacy and ova removal. Criminal groups have developed a brisk trade selling tens of thousands of women into prostitution. There were no reports of victims assisted in these shelters in 2018. Efforts to crack down on human trafficking in Russia focus not only on the men, women, and children who are illegally shipped out of Russia to undergo forced labor and sexual exploitation in other countries, but also those who are illegally brought into Russia from abroad. It involves the transport of persons, who are either entirely unwilling or misinformed about their destination, to a new place, usually to engage in forced labor or prostitution. Human Trafficking Law: Russia only has one law that criminalizes human trafficking. Seventy-nine percent of all global trafficking is for sexual exploitation.2 CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING IN RUSSIA The Government of the Russ International organizations estimate up to 40 percent of these migrants were working unofficially and vulnerable to both forced labor and sex trafficking. NGOs provided all protection services, including shelter, food, legal services, language interpretation, facilitating the return of documents or wages, and assisting in the resettlement or repatriation of victims. Further, the government’s efforts to exert pressure on NGOs through the implementation of restrictive laws also targeted those providing protective services for trafficking victims; the government continued to designate two locally registered NGOs working on trafficking issues as “foreign agents” and blocked one of these NGOs from a government-linked social media site in 2018. The illegal trafficking of human beings is a growing international crime. Human trafficking, the third largest international crime, following illegal drugs and arms trafficking, is believed to be worth billions of dollars each year. According to official government statistics, nearly 5,000 foreigners who entered on Fan IDs remained unlawfully in Russia at the beginning of 2019, including 1,863 Nigerians. Authorities did not screen other vulnerable populations, such as migrant workers or foreign women entering Russia on student visas despite evidence of their intention to work or other vulnerabilities to trafficking. Police regularly avoided registering victims in criminal cases that were unlikely to be solved in order not to risk lower conviction rates. In July 2018, local authorities worked with NGOs to remove Nigerian sex trafficking victims from their exploiters; the victims had entered Russia with promises of employment and World Cup fan identification documents from their exploiters. Some government officials noted an allowance for the extension of contracts for North Korean laborers who had valid contracts as of September 11, 2017 and were still in Russia, while a government spokesperson stated new workers were arriving if authorities had finalized their work authorizations prior to the adoption of UNSCR 2375. Russian government officials stated they were taking steps to fulfill its obligations under the relevant UN Security Council resolution to repatriate all of these workers by the end of 2019, and reported the number of DPRK workers in Russia declined steadily throughout 2018 from 30,023 to 11,490 by the end of 2018. The government maintained limited efforts to prevent trafficking. Additionally, foreign women from Europe (mainly Ukraine and Moldova), Southeast Asia (primarily Vietnam), Africa (mainly Nigeria), and Central Asia fall victim to sex trafficking within Russia. Authorities reportedly covered repatriation costs on a case-by-case basis. Men and women are trafficked within Russia and from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and Moldova to Russia for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor, including work in the construction However, observers also noted other authorities often did not recognize foreign victims when they were unlawfully present in Russia, which resulted in the penalization of foreign victims rather than their referral to care. Sex trafficking is a “form of modern-day slavery in which individuals perform commercial sex through the use of force, fraud, or coercion” (“Sex Trafficking”). Frequently, authorities criminally charged victims with prostitution or unlawful presence in country. In the 1990s, the spotlight fell on thousands of women and minors trafficked out of Russia into prostitution, particularly … Russia passed the law in 2003 under President Vladimir Putin but it does nothing other than label human trafficking illegal. In recent years, criminal cases have involved Russian officials suspected of allegedly facilitating trafficking by enabling victims’ entry into Russia, providing protection to traffickers, and returning victims to their exploiters. • Create a central repository for publicly available information on investigation, prosecution, conviction, and sentencing data for trafficking cases. Although labor trafficking remains the predominant human trafficking problem within Russia, sex trafficking continued. factors like age and gender with different types of human trafficking For example, trafficking of young boys for adoption, and girls and young women human trafficking in Australia is difficult to quantify. Employers sometimes bribe Russian officials to avoid enforcement of penalties for engaging illegal workers. – The Huffington Post, https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/The_Borgen_Project_Logo_small.jpg, 10 Facts About Human Trafficking in Russia, 10 Facts about Renewable Energy in Costa Rica, criminal cases against government officials. It was not clear that the government screened laborers for trafficking indicators. Moreover, DPRK authorities reportedly arrested, imprisoned, subjected to forced labor, tortured, and sometimes executed repatriated trafficking victims. An NGO reported repatriating 40 Nigerian victims. These ties include people with alleged ties to the mob, to Putin, and to human trafficking. Media reports and publicly available data revealed some details on trafficking cases investigated and prosecuted, including some conviction information, during the reporting period, although the limited number of cases reported did not constitute an adequate law enforcement response compared to the scale of trafficking in Russia. The government reported three acquittals. Whether or not the numbers have increased dramatically during the 2018 World Cup, Russia is no stranger to human sex trafficking. Coordinator for the Arctic Region, Bureaus and Offices Reporting Directly to the Secretary, Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, Office of the U.S. An estimated 200 children had returned to Russia since this program first became public in 2017; the government estimated 1,400 remained in Iraq and Syria. Human trafficking: Irina's story Irina was a 16-year-old high school student from the southern Russian Federation when she accepted a family friend's proposal to take a quick trip to the Middle East. An estimated four million workers migrate to Russia annually. Authorities conducted scheduled and unannounced audits of firms employing foreign laborers to check for violations of immigration and labor laws—with penalties in the form of revoking foreign worker permits. A new report from the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence offers a damning portrait of the people Donald Trump chose as his partners for potential projects in Russia. ISIS was known to use child soldiers and perpetrate other forms of trafficking. According to law enforcement statistics, of these 19 identified victims, 16 were Russian and three were from unspecified Central Asian countries; five were female sex trafficking victims, one female and three males were victims of forced labor, and 10 were children, although many of these were baby-selling cases. Corruption and official complicity remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. Homeless children are exploited in sex trafficking. Women and children from Europe (predominantly Ukraine and Moldova), Southeast Asia (primarily China and the Philippines), Africa (particularly Nigeria), and Central Asia are victims of sex trafficking in Russia. Wives and children of foreign fighters were sold after their spouse or father was killed in action. With continued external and internal pressure, we can work towards a world where slavery in Russia does not exist. Russia’s federal-level Investigative Committee publicly reported 14 investigations, 11 under article 127.1 and three under 127.2, a decrease from 19 reported in 2017. NGOs reported law enforcement worked with NGOs to remove victims from brothels and slave labor situation, obtain documents, and help repatriate victims from Nigeria, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The government maintained bilateral contracts with the DPRK government, which continued to operate work camps in Russia throughout 2018. Investigate allegations and prevent the use of forced labor in construction projects and North Korean-operated labor camps. But the collapse of the Soviet Union left the Russian state weak and showed promise to traffickers internationally of Russia being involved in all aspects of the sex trafficking industry. In February 2018, government officials announced that in accordance with UNSCRs 2375 and 2397, Russia would cease issuing new work permits to North Korean laborers and repatriate those workers whose contracts had expired. The government, after a temporary suspension of operations, resumed the repatriation of Russian minors, including potential trafficking victims, whose parents were alleged fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Russian criminal groups threaten family members in order to coerce women into prostitution in Russia and abroad. • Implement a formal policy to ensure identified trafficking victims are not punished or deported for unlawful acts their traffickers compelled them to commit. Human trafficking is one of the most critical humanitarian issues of the century and virtually operates everywhere in the world. With Russia’s political focus being anywhere but human trafficking, the fight will be a difficult one. Sex trafficking occurs in brothels, hotels, and saunas, among other locations. Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally. Labor trafficking remains the predominant human trafficking problem within Russia, accelerating in the context of Russia’s significant increase in labor migration. Human Trafficking in Russia Today Most human trafficking in Russia today takes the form of forced labor, and its victims largely are migrant workers from Central Asia, Ukraine, Vietnam, China, Nigeria, and North Korea. Despite credible reports of forced labor and slave-like conditions of North Koreans working in Russia, the Russian government did not report any investigations into those conditions. The “Yarovaya” package of anti-terror laws made it a crime for individuals or organizations to provide material assistance to people considered to be in Russia illegally; authorities could prosecute NGOs who assist unlawfully present victims of trafficking. There are between five and 12 million foreign workers in Russia, of which the government estimates 2 million are irregular migrants. As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Russia, and victims from Russia are exploited abroad. Instances of labor trafficking have been reported in construction, manufacturing, logging, saw mills, agriculture, sheep farms, brick factories, textile, grocery stores, maritime industries, and domestic service, as well as in forced begging, waste sorting, and street sweeping. While estimates vary, the Russian government reported the number of North Korean workers in Russia declined from 30,000 to approximately 11,500 in 2018. The list alone raises eyebrows when one considers what kind […] The government maintained minimal law enforcement efforts. Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. TRAFFICKING PROFILE As reported over the past five years, Russia is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Many of these migrant workers experience exploitative labor conditions characteristic of trafficking cases, such as withholding of identity documents, non-payment for services rendered, physical abuse, lack of safety measures, or extremely poor living conditions. In Russia, where an estimated one million people are living in what’s known as modern slavery, the politicized nature of human trafficking is also evident but deployed differently, as the Russian government has made the task of assisting trafficking victims a political one. Traffickers subject workers from Russia and other countries in Europe, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia—including Vietnam and DPRK—to forced labor in Russia. Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar enterprise, and it’s one of the fastest-growing illicit industries in the world. The ILO Committee of Experts noted its deep concern in 2016 that some provisions of the Russian criminal code, which included compulsory labor as possible punishment, are worded broadly enough to lend themselves to application as a means of punishment for the expression of views opposed to the government. • Create a national anti-trafficking action plan and establish a central coordinator for government efforts. Authorities punished child victims of forced criminality. Subcontracting practices in Russia’s construction industry result in cases of non-payment or slow payment of wages, which leave workers at risk of labor trafficking. Prevention campaigns were hampered by a law that made it a crime to talk to children younger than 16 about sexual issues and exploitation. The government reported the identification of 19 trafficking victims in 2018. A February 2016 agreement between Russia and DPRK enabled Russian authorities to deport North Koreans residing “illegally” in Russia, possibly even for those with refugee status; this may increase the risk of labor trafficking for North Koreans working under the state-to-state agreement. However, the number of victims identified by the government remained negligible and authorities routinely deported potential forced labor victims without screening for signs of exploitation and prosecuted sex trafficking victims for prostitution offenses. It did not report comprehensive data on trafficking criminal cases, making it difficult to assess the adequacy or effectiveness of law enforcement efforts. Media reports indicated Russia had begun to repatriate the laborers whose permits had expired. • Ensure screening among children returned from Iraq and Syria for child soldiering indicators and provide with rehabilitation and reintegration support. Russian women and children are reportedly victims of sex trafficking in Russia and abroad, including in Northeast Asia, Europe, Central Asia, Africa, the United States, and the Middle East. Media reported the dismissal of several officials, including the director, of prison IK-14 in Mordavia; the director was alleged to have engaged the female prisoners in forced labor for his personal benefit. Russia passed the law in 2003 under President Vladimir Putin but it does nothing other than label human trafficking illegal. In February 2019, the government agreed to allow the Kyrgyz Republic Ombudsman to appoint five special representatives in Russia to monitor for violations of human rights of Kyrgyz citizens, including trafficking. • Develop formal national procedures to guide law enforcement, labor inspectors, and other government officials in identifying and referring victims to service providers, particularly among labor migrants and individuals in prostitution. A shelter “for women in difficult life situations,” run by the Russian Orthodox Church, continued to accept victims and offered them food housing and psychological care, although not medical assistance; the government did not provide financial support for the shelter. Sadly, the fight to end human trafficking, particularly sexual trafficking, is a long one and requires the cooperation of multiple entities. Corruption among some government officials and within some state agencies creates an environment enabling trafficking crimes. Not only would this assist current victims, but it would make eradicating human trafficking in Russia a real possibility. Media reported the government continued to issue new work permits. Despite the lack of formal procedures, observers reported some working-level officials referred potential victims for assistance on an ad hoc basis. 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