Uzbekistan to Regularize Cotton Sales to Bangladesh
Uzbekistan would supply 200,000 metric tons of cotton to Bangladesh annually under the terms of a new bilateral agreement, Dhaka’s Financial Express newspaper reported on August 5. The deal, which...
View ArticleUzbekistan Ups Cotton Sales to Asia, Bypassing Boycott
Human rights groups have long urged consumers and apparel manufacturers to boycott cotton from Uzbekistan, the world’s second largest cotton exporter, because it is picked using forced and child labor....
View ArticleUzbekistan Hails Cotton Fair While Industry Blasted for “Slavery”
Uzbekistan stands to earn $1 billion annually exporting cotton, an industry that has planted the Central Asian country prominently on the inaugural Global Slavery Index published by an Australian...
View ArticleDeadly Year for Forced Laborers in Uzbekistan’s Cotton Fields
Uzbekistan again mobilized over a million forced laborers, including schoolchildren, to harvest its billion-dollar cotton crop this autumn, according to a detailed November 27 report from the Cotton...
View ArticleReport Highlights Turkmenistan’s Use of Forced Labor in Cotton Harvest
When you think of cotton and forced labor in Central Asia, you probably think of Uzbekistan. But a new report offers a reminder that Turkmenistan continues to force thousands of citizens into the...
View ArticleRights Activists Knock on Uzbek Embassy’s Door But Get No Answer
Rights activists are embracing an economic argument against Uzbekistan’s ongoing use of forced labor in the cotton sector: a reliance on slaves is far more inefficient than using wage...
View ArticleUzbekistan: US Slams Tashkent over Continuing Child Labor
Uzbekistan has made “no advancement” in eliminating the worst forms of child labor, the US Department of Labor has found, despite Tashkent’s efforts to remove younger children from the cotton fields....
View ArticleForced Labor Still Systematic in Turkmenistan – Report
With the arrival of November, the serfs trickle home from Turkmenistan’s cotton fields. But a culture of state employees being forced to labor in menial jobs continues throughout the year, says an...
View ArticleUzbekistan: Forced to Labor in Cotton Fields, Students Rebel
Uzbekistan’s practice of sending forced laborers to pick the cotton harvest causes a furor abroad every year. But now there are rumblings of discontent from within the country. National University...
View ArticleUzbekistan: Forced Labor Gathers Cotton Crop
Roughly one out of every five adults in Uzbekistan was coerced into picking cotton during the just-completed harvest season, according to a November 14 statement distributed by the Cotton Campaign, an...
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