Turkmenistan Cotton: Forced Labor Remains Widespread and Systematic Despite Some Shifts in 2023 Harvest
Stronger International Pressure Needed
(Washington, D.C., May 7, 2024) - Independent monitoring of the 2023 cotton harvest found that the Turkmen government took some steps to reduce forced labor in the annual harvest. The report launched today "Forced Labor in Turkmenistan Cotton: Critical Moment to Increase Pressure for Change," shows that several weeks into the 2023 harvest, public authorities stopped mobilizing teachers and doctors or extorting them to pay for replacement pickers, although it continued to subject all other groups of state employees to forced labor.
Given these developments, it is now critical that governments and international organizations to increase political and economic pressure on the Turkmen government to end forced labor and expand the measures taken in the 2023 harvest through deeper changes, the Cotton Campaign said. The Turkmen government should take concrete steps to address the root causes of forced labor in the cotton sector, protect labor rights, and empower workers and farmers. In Turkmenistan, state-imposed forced labor remains widespread and systematic in the annual harvest, while the government severely represses all civic freedoms and fundamental labor rights which are crucial to combating forced labor. Companies that use cotton should trace their supply chains to the raw material and ensure they do not source cotton or cotton products from Turkmenistan, which remain subject to an import ban in the U.S.
"It took a decade of independent monitoring and reporting, advocacy, and campaigning for Turkmenistan to take some steps to reduce forced labor in its cotton harvest", said Allison Gill, legal director at Global Labor Justice, which hosts the Cotton Campaign. "It is still unclear if Turkmenistan has the necessary political will to eradicate forced labor, and international stakeholders shouldn’t take their foot off the gas. Now is the time to increase the pressure and call for meaningful reforms to end forced labor that address root causes and emphasise fundamental rights, especially freedom of association, freedom of expression, and collective bargaining rights."
In 2023, for the first time, the Turkmen government invited the International Labor Organisation (ILO) to monitor the harvest. While the ILO Mission has not yet published its complete findings, the 2024 report of the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations notes that ILO’s preliminary findings “indicate direct or indirect evidence of mobilization of public servants in all regions visited.” The ILO’s presence in the country may have played a role in the Turkmen government’s decision to stop mobilizing teachers and doctors or extorting them to pay for a replacement picker.
"Reform is possible and the Turkmen government has the power to eradicate forced labor," said Ruslan Myatiev, director of Turkmen.News - an independent media and human rights organization, which also monitors forced labor in Turkmenistan’s cotton fields. "Now is the time to expand the measures the government took in the 2023 harvest through deeper, concrete, and transparent policy changes to end forced labor and stop punishing activists who speak out about abuses in the cotton sector."
Besides teachers and doctors, all groups of state employees, including technical staff of schools and hospitals, employees of utilities organizations, and state-owned factories continued to be mobilized or extorted to pay for a replacement throughout the whole harvest period. Children were not mobilized by public authorities, but child labor was used in the harvest, which the ILO Mission also recorded in its preliminary monitoring findings, with children often picking cotton to earn money as replacement pickers or to replace a relative who was required to pick. The government did not hold officials who used forced labor accountable or provide remedy to victims.
In addition to state-imposed forced labor in the harvest, the cotton production system in Turkmenistan also relies on the exploitation of farmers. Every year, the government imposes cotton production quotas on farmers and enforces them with the threat of penalty, including fines and loss of land. The state sets the price at which it will purchase cotton from farmers and determines the cost of production.
"With the state-set purchasing price for cotton, farmers can barely cover their expenses, often ending up in debt,” said Farid Tukhbatullin, chairperson of Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights. "It’s a vicious circle of exploitation. To be able to pay the state for the inputs they receive, farmers need to sell their livestock or find another way to pay, with equally dire consequences on their livelihoods. Otherwise they accumulate more debt every year. The Turkmen government should introduce structural reforms to address forced labor, exploitation, and corruption in all aspects of the agricultural sector."
In an increasing number of jurisdictions, national laws governing supply chains, imports, and human rights due diligence require companies to eliminate forced labor from their supply chains. In the U.S., products made in whole or in part with cotton originating in Turkmenistan are banned since 2018. Despite this, forced labor Turkmen cotton continues to enter global markets, primarily through suppliers in third countries--in particular Turkey, but also Pakistan and Italy, among others--that use cotton, yarn, and fabric originating in Turkmenistan and sell goods to major global brands.
“To meet their obligations not to use goods made with forced labor, global brands and retailers should prohibit the use of cotton from Turkmenistan in their products and engage their direct suppliers as well as the spinning and fabric mills in their supply chains to meet this requirement," said Raluca Dumitrescu, senior coordinator of the Cotton Campaign."We encourage the brands who already do this to be public about it and join the Cotton Campaign in our efforts to signal to the government of Turkmenistan that the use of forced labor is unacceptable."
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The Cotton Campaign is a coalition of human and labor rights NGOs, independent trade unions, brand and retail associations, responsible investor organizations, supply chain transparency groups, and academic partners united to end forced labor and promote decent work for cotton workers in Central Asia.
