Hellish Work - Exploitation of migrant tobacco workers in Kazakhstan
- Document number
- 2470
- Date
- 2010
- Title
- Hellish Work - Exploitation of migrant tobacco workers in Kazakhstan
- Author/publisher
- Human rights Watch
- Availability
- View/save PDF version of this document
- Document type(s)
- Research/Study/Analysis,
- Keywords
- Employment, tobacco farming, trafficking, exploitation
- Summary
- The report is built on interviews with 68 tobacco workers in 2009 and 2010. Through the interviews it was discovered that several workers had experienced having their passports confiscated; furthermore there were cases of missing work contracts, irregular wages, missing earnings, long working hours and poor sanitary and living conditions. In some cases forced labour was also reported. The report also reveals 72 cases of child labour. Due to the dangers of tobacco farming it is strictly forbidden for children to work in this industry. However, since the pay is often linked to the quantity of tobacco a person/family can produce, then many families rely heavily on the children to help and thus miss school.
The report is made to influence tobacco companies (especially PMI and PMO) to acknowledge that exploitation takes place and for them to fight such behaviours. Human rights watch concludes the report with a list of recommendations. - Related documents