Azernews.Az

WASHINGTON D.C. – The Azerbaijani government does not fully comply with the "minimum standards" for the elimination of human trafficking, the US State Department has claimed in its annual report.

The Trafficking in Persons Report 2011 said Azerbaijan is a source, transit and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor, and women and children subjected to sex trafficking.

It said men and boys from Azerbaijan are subjected to conditions of forced labor in Russia and Moldova. Women and children from Azerbaijan are subjected to sex trafficking in the UAE, Turkey, Russia, and Iran. Women and children from Azerbaijan are subjected to sex trafficking and children are subjected to forced labor, including forced begging, within the country, the report said.

It said Azerbaijan serves as a transit country for women from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan subjected to forced prostitution in Turkey and the UAE. Azerbaijan is a destination country for women from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan subjected to forced prostitution. Azerbaijan is also a destination country for men from Turkey, Afghanistan, and China subjected to conditions of forced labor, primarily in the construction industry. Chinese women are subjected to forced labor as street vendors within Azerbaijan.

The report said the government of Azerbaijan has not made "sufficient progress" in investigating, prosecuting or convicting labor trafficking offenses or in identifying victims of forced labor. Therefore, Azerbaijan was placed for a fourth consecutive year on a list of countries failing to meet the minimum standards on fighting human trafficking but taking some steps to resolve the problem.

The US government said that during the reporting period, the government acknowledged that forced labor is a problem within Azerbaijan and investigated at least three reports of forced labor. It did not, however, prosecute or convict any trafficking offenders for forced labor. Moreover, the reported number of sex trafficking prosecutions and convictions declined from the previous year. The government identified three Azerbaijani victims of forced labor in Poland and investigated an allegation of 25 Azerbaijanis subjected to forced labor in Russia. The government also provided assistance to some domestic victims of trafficking without requiring them to submit a police report.

The report said the government of Azerbaijan demonstrated "uneven" anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts during the reporting period. It said the government did not provide information on the number of sex trafficking investigations in 2010. The government reported prosecuting 38 individuals for sex trafficking crimes in 2010, compared with 58 individuals prosecuted in 2009. The government convicted 28 sex trafficking offenders during the reporting period, a decrease compared with 58 trafficking offenders convicted during the previous reporting period,