The Anti-Corruption Agency revealed the fact of human trafficking in the Department of Employment and Social Programs Coordination under the Mayor’s Office of Kostanay region.
As noted in the report, the Department’s officials are suspected of transferring an incapable citizen M., who was under the care of the state in one of the social institutions of the region, for exploitation as a free labor force in a private boarding house for old people in the city of Nur-Sultan.
That is, in fact, the woman was sold as a slave. Other details of the case were not reported by the Anti-Corruption Agency, referring to the secrecy of the investigation. In addition, Article 128 of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan “Human trafficking” is categorized as “closed cases”. However, it’s known that one of the suspects was taken under house arrest with the court’s sanction.
“The final decision regarding the suspects with the determination of the degree of their guilt will be made based on the results of the investigation,” the report says.
It should be noted that this crime falls under several points of the aforementioned Article 128. It was committed by a group of persons by prior agreement using their official position against a person who was known to be suffering from a mental disorder or was in a helpless state. Punishment for these points provides for imprisonment for a term of seven to nine years with confiscation of property.
It should be noted that despite the statements of the authorities that Kazakhstan is actively fighting human trafficking, in 2018 the country took 83rd place (out of 167 countries) in the global slavery index, compiled by the non-profit organization Walk Free. According to this organization, over 75,000 people live in slavery in Kazakhstan.
Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan, 103 criminal cases were opened on the fact of human trafficking last year.
As for recent figures, according to the Committee on Legal Statistics and Special Records of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the republic, only since the beginning of this year, 8 crimes have been registered under Article 128 of the Criminal Code. In addition, 38 crimes on the fact of “illegal deprivation of liberty” were also registered.
