Cotton picking involves not only employees of budgetary organizations, but also secondary school students.
This year, the cotton harvest started unofficially and well before the cotton harvest season. ACCA sources said that, as in the past year, the work is carried out using forced labor, even with the involvement of underage schoolchildren.
So in Mary region, state employees, who are involved in the harvest, have to go to the cotton fields with their own money. They also have to pay for their food and a place to sleep. If the cotton field is located at a considerable distance, then they need to travel overnight, and there are no conditions for living in the field. In some places, people sleep in the open air, there is no clean water and no toilet.
Each government agency is required to send up to 20 of its employees to pick cotton, but state employees prefer to hire cotton pickers and send them instead of themselves. Such a service costs 500 manats for state employees, and this is with an average salary in the country (1,200 manats).
The same is happening in Lebap region. ACCA sources said they saw schoolchildren working in some fields on September, 1st. Often teachers force high school students to go to the cotton harvest instead of themselves, promising good grades in the quarter and in the year. Basically, teachers exploit schoolchildren from poor families, and sometimes orphans.
Despite harsh criticism from international human rights organizations, the country’s authorities continue the practice of forced labor. It’s worth recalling that such global brands as H&M, IKEA, Adidas and others refused to use Turkmen cotton in 2016, and in 2018 the US Border and Customs Service banned the import of all types of cotton from Turkmenistan. The state media of Turkmenistan doesn’t cover this problem in any way, and the government of Turkmenistan doesn’t react to criticism in any way.
