The International Coalition “Cotton Campaign” summed up the results of monitoring the cotton harvest 2020 and issued the statement. It states that there were more pickers who worked of their own free will than those mobilized against their will.
“The progress, we are seeing in the harvest of 2020, shows that Uzbekistan has a real prospect of ending forced labor permanently,” said Umida Niyazova, director of Uzbek Forum for Human Rights (Germany).
Government measures, such as higher prices for cotton pickers, increased control by labor inspectorates and improved recruitment by some cotton clusters, have led to a reduction in forced labor among pickers, especially in some areas. The COVID-19 pandemic has also led to an increase in volunteer pickers, because many Uzbek workers have lost their jobs and income. Many labor migrants were forced to return to the country unexpectedly, with no other employment options.
However, the signs of the era of Karimov have remained unchanged, which creates a risk of forced labor in the future. Local authorities have retained a key role in organizing and supervising cotton picking. Government officials have made clear and repeated statements about the prohibition of forced labor, but regional authorities remain fully responsible for the cotton harvest.
The statement provides evidence of how forced labor is initiated. Employees of various institutions and employees of state enterprises enter the field. They either picked cotton themselves or paid for outside pickers. Observers have documented more than a dozen cases involving thousands of workers in which the authorities forcibly mobilized cotton pickers. For example, the Ministry of Emergency Situations sent 2,890 fire-fighters to pick cotton in Mirishkor district of Kashkadarya region.
Cultivation and processing of harvest are now completely under the control of cotton-textile clusters – corporations with vertically integrated production, which creates serious vulnerabilities for farmers. There is only one cluster in each district. So, farmers have no choice with which cluster to contract. They have no control or bargaining power over the price that they receive for their cotton or the cost of inputs. Farmers, who refuse to grow cotton on these terms, lose their land.
The signers of the statement emphasize that the authorities of Uzbekistan arbitrarily restrict civil liberties and prevent the registration of independent NGOs for far-fetched reasons. Especially there are barriers for those who monitor the observance of labor rights. Farmers and agricultural workers don’t have independent trade unions or organizations to enable them to bargain collectively or protect them from reprisals.
The Cotton Campaign ends its statement with the conviction that there is no priority in Uzbekistan in the development of civil actors – NGOs and independent trade unions, which can promote transparency of reforms and protection of rights.
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