The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world, stretching from Europe to the Pacific, and is a massive landmass for the origin, transit and destination of women, men and children who are trafficked into forced labor. Russian authorities reported that a December 2013 amendment to the law on state protection of victims, witnesses, and other participants in criminal proceedings expanded the rights of crime victims, including through damage compensation and notice to victims on the release of convicts. Human Rights Watch and other sources reported that Russian authorities rounded up many of these migrants, many of whom were vulnerable to human trafficking, for alleged status violations and detained or deported them without any reported efforts to identify them as trafficking victims. According to official government statistics, nearly 5,000 foreigners who entered on Fan IDs remained unlawfully in Russia at the beginning of 2019, including 1,863 Nigerians. Russia has one of the worst worldwide records in fighting forced labor and sex trafficking, according to an annual report from a U.S. government anti-trafficking agency. The Russian government has signed the Program of Cooperation between CIS Member States against Trafficking in Persons, but to date there have been no specific steps taken toward implementation. There were also reports that Russian authorities deported Nigerian and Kenyan sex trafficking victims in 2013 without any investigation into the crime, despite the victims’ fear of retribution in their home countries. Routes, Organisers, and Human Trafficking Victims 23 1.2. Yet, in 2013, just 28 people were … Russia has as many as 12 million foreign workers -- many from Central Asian countries like Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan -- and they sometimes fall victim to forced labor, abuse, and sex trafficking. Many of these migrant workers experienced exploitative labor conditions characteristic of trafficking cases, such as withholding of documents, nonpayment for services rendered, physical abuse, or extremely poor living conditions. Throughout the summer and fall of 2013, the Russian government also conducted sweeps of areas with migrant labor, rounded up thousands of migrants, and charged the migrants without screening for indicators of trafficking. Other criminal statutes were also used to prosecute trafficking offenders, such as Articles 240 and 241 for involvement in or organizing prostitution. During the reporting period, the government did not establish any concrete system for the identification or care of trafficking victims and lacked a victim referral mechanism, though there were reports of victims being identified and provided assistance on an ad hoc basis. As of 2016, the Global Slavery Index estimated that over a million people were victims of human trafficking in Russia. Russian authorities charged some suspected trafficking victims with residing illegally in the territory of Russia without the proper papers and reportedly deported trafficking victims without offering assistance. Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, Counterterrorism & Countering Violent Extremism, Western Hemisphere (Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada), Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Trafficking in Persons 2014 Report: Country Narratives, Business Support: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization. Official sources reported that 23 trafficking offenders were sentenced to imprisonment, and nine were given suspended sentences; in 2012, 26 offenders were sentenced to imprisonment, seven were given suspended sentences, and two sentenced to other dispositions. Russia has developed into a major hub for human trafficking. According to media reports, the government investigated at least 15 potential sex trafficking suspects under Article 127.1, and at least five labor trafficking cases under Article 127.2 in 2013. Unofficial reports confirmed sentences of a few months’ to 13 years’ imprisonment, slightly higher than last year’s range of up to 12 years’ imprisonment. Out of all these cases, only 38 traffickers received convictions as of 2013. The Office of Website Management, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department.External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.Note: documents in Portable Document Format (PDF) require Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or higher to view, download Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Government of Russia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Various organizations referred victims to the shelter, including elements of the Russian federal government. Iranian officials often condoned crimes. In 2013, at least 28 trafficking offenders were convicted under Article 127.1, the article typically used for sex trafficking crimes, and four traffickers were convicted of the use of slave labor under Article 127.2, compared with a total of 29 people convicted under Article 127.1 and five convicted under Article 127.2 in 2012. 7 min read. These penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with punishments prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. Public Opinion in Russia on the Politics of Human Trafficking MARY BUCKLEY Abstract The growing literature on human trafficking lacks survey data on citizens' attitudes towards it in states of origin. During the reporting period, there were no efforts to develop public awareness of possible forced labor or sex trafficking. The Government of the Russian Federation has made significant progress in this area over the past decade, but a report commissioned by the United States Department of State in 2010 concluded that much more needed to be done be Definitions and Classification of the Forms of Human Trafficking (HT) 14 1.1.1. The Office of Website Management, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department. Russia is a supply, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children being trafficked for various purposes. Official and unofficial statistics estimate that there are between five million and 12 million foreign workers in Russia. Given the hidden nature of human trafficking, it is almost impossible to understand the full scope and scale of the issue. There were reports that Russian law enforcement was not always cooperative or responsive to investigative requests from foreign governments. Russia’s 2016 Statistics: In 2016, the Global Slavery Index reported that there were more than one million human trafficking victims in Russia. The government took efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts by newly criminalizing obtaining the sexual services of a minor aged 16 to 18 years old. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, the lead law enforcement agency in the majority of trafficking cases, conducted regular training during the reporting period designed to guide its officers in handling trafficking cases. The enslaved include Russians as well as people, especially women and children, from many other areas of … This chapter describes the cause of prostitution in Russia in the 1990s. Russia is a country of origin, transit, and destination for trafficking and has been labeled by the US State Department as failing to provide necessary services to combat the trafficking and treat victims. The practice of using forced labor is also common in the country. Russia is ranked the sixteenth in prevalence of human trafficking among all countries, with more than a million people estimated to be living in slavery in Russia today. In 2019 and 2020, Iran failed to prevent human trafficking, prosecute its perpetrators or protect victims, the State Department said in the annual report released on June 25, 2020. Moscow Ignoring Most Of Over 500,000 Cases Of Human Trafficking In Russia – OpEd Previous promises of creating an interagency committee to address human trafficking were not fulfilled. Although a law on temporary residency provided the opportunity for a person officially recognized as a victim of human trafficking to apply for an adjustment of pre-existing temporary residency permits, there were no reports that any trafficking victims received such a benefit and this law would not apply to any trafficking victims who were illegally present in Russia. Out of all these cases, only 38 traffickers received convictions as of 2013. They were also involved in recruiting children to fight for Iranian-led militias in Syria and forcing adults and children into the commercial sex trade. During the reporting period, the former chief of the Criminal Investigation Unit of a police precinct in the Chuvash Republic, who had provided protection to a trafficking ring, received two suspended sentences of eight years’ and four years’ imprisonment. The trafficking is multidimensional and it involves both commercial sexual exploitation and labor exploitation. The government did fund three projects to prevent trafficking, including for the prevention of the use of forced labor of soldiers in the armed forces and for the development of a pilot prototype of the Russian National Monitoring Center for Missing Children and Child Victims. Amongst the most trusted sources for understanding the global situation is the research by the International Labour Organization (ILO).. In Russia, where an estimated one million people are living in what’s known as modern slavery, the politicized nature of human trafficking is also evident but deployed differently, as the Russian government has made the task of assisting trafficking victims a political one. Not only would this assist current victims, but it would make eradicating human trafficking in Russia a real possibility. The latest statistics provided by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), based on statistics collected by the Russian government, show that in 2015, there were 285 detected victims of trafficking under the different trafficking-related articles1 of Russia’s criminal code. WASHINGTON -- In a new report, the U.S. State Department says Belarus, Iran, Russia, and Turkmenistan remain among the worst offenders of human trafficking and forced labor. The government initiated a prosecution against a Samara region senior investigator charged with refusing to initiate a criminal case of deprivation of liberty of two women by a criminal group. The Global Slavery Index estimates that 794,000 people lived in conditions of modern slavery in Russia on any given day in 2016, reflecting a prevalence rate of 5.5 victims for every thousand people. Name of country: _____ Tier Placement (check box): ( ) Tier 1; ( ) Tier 2; ( ) Tier 2 Watch List; ( ) Tier 3. The Security Council did not announce a decision on this request. Although labor trafficking remains the predominant human trafficking problem within Russia, sex trafficking … Law enforcement cases from this reporting year indicate that forced prostitution occurs in brothels, hotels, and saunas, among other locations; certain traffickers advertised the sexual services of some minors over the internet. The absence of a national action plan, to combat trafficking, non-existence of a single coordinating authority for anti-trafficking efforts, and the absence of funding in the federal and local budgets for trafficking prevention and victim protection illustrated the Government of Russia’s low political will to address human trafficking. A large number of immigrant and local women are often exploited for sex while men are forced to work in oil mines.