WELCOME TO IWPR'S REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA, No. 498, June 25, 2007 SPECIAL REPORT
TAJIK MIGRANTS FLEECED BY SHADY TRAVEL FIRMS Taking the bus is the cheapest option for people hoping to earn a living in Russia, but they have little protection from unscrupulous tour organisers. By Bakhtior Valiev, Rano Babajanova and Akmali Kadam in Khujand REAPING AN UNRIPE HARVEST IN UZBEKISTAN Cumbersome state planning and a shortage of harvesting equipment means wheat is being gathered in before it is ready, just to meet deadlines. By IWPR staff in Central Asia **** NEW AT IWPR ****************************************************************** KURK SCHORK AWARDS DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES APPROACHING (June 15) The deadline for entries to the Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism is just two weeks away. Two annual prizes of $5,000 each are awarded - one to an international freelance print/internet-based reporter; and the second to a local journalist in the developing world. The deadline for receipt of emailed or posted entries is June 15th. The awards are being administered by IWPR, on behalf of the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund, with the two winners celebrated at an event to be held in London in November. A video of last years event hosted by Christiane Amanpour of CNN can be seen on IWPRs website www.iwpr.net For details on how to apply electronically or by post, contact Alan Davis ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) or click here http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?p=-&apc_state=henitri&s=o&o=top_ksa_07.html COALITION FOR INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE (CIJ) TRIAL REPORTS ARCHIVE: When CIJ closed in 2006, it donated its searchable Trial Reports Archive to IWPR in recognition of our own reporting work and to ensure these courtroom reports would remain available to the public. Milosevic and other ICTY Trial Reports as well as Sierra Leone Reports are now available at <http://iwpr.net/?apc_state=hen&s=c> MIANEH is a new, independent web-based initiative run as a project by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting. 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This series of photographs was awarded a 2nd place in the General News Stories category at the World Press Photo Awards in 2007. http://iwpr.net/?apc_state=henh&s=o&o=top_galleries_index.html NEWS BRIEFING CENTRAL ASIA is a new concept in regional reporting, comprising analysis and news behind the news in Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Available at: www.NBCentralAsia.net **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA RSS: http://www.iwpr.net/en/rca/rss.xml TURKMEN RADIO: INSIDE VIEW is an IWPR radio training and broadcast project for Turkmenistan. View at: http://www.iwpr.net/?p=trk&s=p&o=-&apc_state=henh RECEIVE FROM IWPR: Readers are urged to subscribe to IWPR's full range of free electronic publications at: http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?apc_state=henh&s=s&m=p GIVE TO IWPR: IWPR is wholly dependent upon grants and donations. For more information about how you can support IWPR go to: http://www.iwpr.net/donate.html **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** SPECIAL REPORT TAJIK MIGRANTS FLEECED BY SHADY TRAVEL FIRMS Taking the bus is the cheapest option for people hoping to earn a living in Russia, but they have little protection from unscrupulous tour organisers. By Bakhtior Valiev, Rano Babajanova and Akmali Kadam in Khujand Hard-up Tajik labour migrants who choose to travel all the way to Russia by bus are finding that the apparent saving is a false economy. Many report being tricked into parting with money for buses that never materialise and travel documents that turn out to have been forged. The bus journey to Russia from Tajikistan takes several days and is fraught with difficulties, but at approximately 170 US dollars - around half the price of a plane ticket - many of the thousands of people going to Russia for seasonal work each year are choosing this option. Depending on the time of year and how the migrants are counted, there are anything between 400,000 and a million or more Tajik nationals working in Russia. Many work on building sites or do other manual work, especially after the Russian authorities banned non-nationals from working as market traders earlier this year. The remittances they send home are a mainstay of Tajikistans economy. Soghd region in the north of Tajikistan has 54 firms which transport migrant workers by bus or even truck. For a fee, private agencies will not only organise the bus trip but also help arrange the necessary travel documents. The buses run from the Soghd region through Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan and then on via Kazakstan to Russia. Many of the workers have jobs already waiting for them, fixed up by friends or relations already in Russia. Tajik nationals do not require a visa to enter Russia, although they must carry an immigration card, issued free at border and customs checkpoints. But some unscrupulous organisers try to cut costs by transporting workers to Russia by illegal routes. They also provide them with fake immigration cards, taking advantage of the fact that many do not speak Russian and have no idea what they are signing. SENT HOME FOR HAVING THE WRONG PAPERS Three hundred migrant workers from Tajikistan were caught out by such a company in April this year, when they were deported from Kazakstan on their way to Russia by bus. Unknown to them, they were given fake ID cards by guide who organised their journey to the Russian border. They were detained by the Kazak authorities for illegally entering that country after police stopped their bus and ran checks on their ID papers. The bus conductor and driver clearly decided to save money and avoid paying customs duties, so they took a back route [across the Kazak-Russian border], commented a businessman in Khujand, who did not want to be named. Some of them do that to avoid paying customs fees on goods they are taking to Russia. Abdusattor, from the village of Chilgazi in the Isfara district of Soghd, was one of the group of 300. He had tried to fly to Siberia, but was unable to find a convenient flight. I originally wanted to travel to Novosibirsk by plane, but at the ticket office, I was told that there were no tickets on this route until May 20, he said. Abdusattor turned down the ticket office staffs offer to arrange an earlier flight through a middleman - and for extra cash and decided to take the bus instead. He sold everything he could to pay for the trip. A friend recommended an agent in Khujand, the administrative centre of Soghd region, whom Abdusattor paid the equivalent of 150 US dollars to arrange the trip, believing his assurances that the travel documentation would be in order. But near Kazakstans northern border with Russia, border guards at Pavlodar detained the whole group. Because of the irresponsibility of our guide all 300 labour migrants were deported, said Abdusattor, who is now barred from entering Kazakstan for the next five years. The organiser had promised the trip would be like a fairytale, but this proved far from the truth. As soon as you leave the country, people start treating you like a stray dog. The poor passengers get to the border with Russia by changing from one bus to another. Furthermore, they have to cross huge fields and steppe land on foot with large, heavy packs, said Abdusattor. TRAVELLERS RECOGNISE THE RISKS In Khujand, IWPR interviewed travellers about to set off on the long trip to Perm, a Russian city in the Urals mountains. The trip organisers had assured them that they would be allowed into Russia with no problems, but many of the buss passengers appeared uncertain what travel documents they needed. Some thought they should have Russian immigration papers, but did not know how to get them. Abduvoris Eshmatov and Yokubjon Okhunzod said they had heard they would need immigration cards for Russia, but had no idea what they should look like. At 19, Halim Uzganov was a newcomer to life as a migrant worker, but said he had little choice as he had no opportunities to pursue further education or find employment at home. I am going to Russia for the first time, to get a job in Perm. I dont know what difficulties Ill face on the journey. But I dont have any other options, he said. I dont know what barriers the Uzbek, Kazak or Russian border guards and customs officers will create for me, but I have to go to earn money. Hojiboy Tojiboev was older and had worked in Tajikistan, but he too felt he had to take the risk and go to Russia. Im a teacher, but the [monthly] salary for that profession in Tajikistan is not enough to feed my family for two days. So Ive had to force myself to go on this journey to look for work, he said. One man, who gave his first name as Izzatullo, was among the many who had opted for the bus to save money. When spring comes, I face a cash crisis. Ive been through a lot of hardships, and a plane ticket costs 300 [US] dollars while the bus only costs half that amount, he said. The more experienced travellers had their own horror stories to tell. Umar Irismatov, said he had had problems several on previous bus journeys. On one occasion, he and 50 others got as far as Uzbekistan travelling in minivans, where they were supposed to get on a bigger bus to Russia. But Uzbek policemen stopped them, carried out a strip search - the most insulting thing of all, said Irismatov and ordered them to return to Tajikistan. They stamped our passports and gave us 24 hours to go home. Most of the men did go back and then had to get their [Tajik] passports changed, he recalled. But he and about 30 others managed to sneak into Kazakstan, where they caught a train to Russia. Of course, after these humiliations and difficulties I want to take the train, but that would take a month; you need to book the ticket a month before the train leaves. The work in Russia wont wait for us, and my family is hungry, he said. FRAUDSTERS PICK ON THE UNWARY Ayubjon Latipov is one of many people who say they have been tricked out of their money by dishonest middlemen. Friends put him in touch with a man who showed him identification that appeared to prove he worked for a local travel agency which specialises in trips to Tyumen, a city in western Siberia. The man told Latipov and a group of others that all they had to do was sign contracts and they would be taken to Russia both safely and legally. When we paid for the journey, we took crowded minibuses through the Batken region [southern Kyrgyzstan, near Tajikistan], and he was supposed to meet us with a bus on the [Kyrgyzstan-]Kazakstan border. When we arrived at the appointed place, he had vanished with the money, said. Latipov. It soon transpired that the man was a known fraudster. At the bus station, they [the travel agency] told us that no such employee worked for them, but that they knew the man and would hand him over to the authorities if he returned to the country, he said. Shukhrat Ahmedov, the head of the migration service in Soghds regional police department, said dishonest agents and those who tried to cut corners by breaking the rules were the major source of problems for migrants going by bus. Workers can end up being arrested for crossing the border illegally in neighbouring states when the travel operators take them over international borders along back roads, simply to avoid customs procedures, he explained. The migrants are forced to trust their drivers and guides, who encourage them to keep quiet when they approach the border. When they cross the border, the bus conductors forbid passengers from talking about the real aims of their visit. The passengers have absolutely no rights. How should they know where to get immigration cards and how to tell fake cards from real ones? They are given the cards and they fill them out, said Ahmedov. Bus drivers argue in their defence that submitting to border controls can be a tortuous process. Frontier guards go over their vehicles, looking under the upholstery and even in the fuel tank, adding long delays to the journey. It is especially difficult to get past Uzbek customs at Oibek checkpoint,said one driver, Askarali, referring to a crossing point on the Tajik-Uzbek border. Last time when we were going to Moscow we waited there for 12 hours. One reason for these checks is to stop trafficking of illegal narcotics - Central Asia is a major export route for Afghan heroin, whose production is rising year by year. LACK OF AWARENESS MAKES MIGRANTS EASY PREY At the end of April, the Soghd regional police ordered local media not to carry advertisements from organisations offering to arrange work trips to Russia. These [agents] do not have appropriate licenses, a source at the police department told IWPR. For this reason, from now on it will be prohibited to publish such advertisements without the prior permission of the police migration service. Some counselling services are available to inform prospective migrants of their rights and the pitfalls that may await them. Zainura Kakharova works as a lawyer at the Regional Information Resource Centre, which provides information on Russias immigration and residents regulations in Russian, Tajik and Uzbek and English. The migrant workers dont even know Russian, let alone the countrys laws, she said Some workers complain that advice centres fail to provide information in Tajik or at least that is what the travel agents tell them. Ihave heard about these centres that provide assistance. But the bus trip organisors said these centres were set up by foreign organisations and provide information only in Russian and English, which I dont understand, said Nosirjon Ahmadov from the northern town of Zafarabad. With little knowledge of their rights, very few people try to prosecute bogus travel organisations. However, one man did seek and win compensation in a case. The case was filed in Khujand last year by a man who said he had been promised a job in Russia. When he got there, he found Russian citizenship was a requirement for the position. On his journey, he was also robbed and beaten. According to judge Anvarjon Temurov who presided over the case, He ended up wandering around Russian villages. The same [travel] organisation eventually brought him home. But he got frostbite in Russia and his legs had to be amputated when he returned to Khujand, he said. The court upheld the plaintiffs case and in January 2007 awarded him damages of 8,000 somoni, or 2,326 dollars. There are, however, many middlemen and travel agencies that do provide a good and legal - service. Several representatives of such firms said they guaranteed a safe journey and assistance with arranging travel and immigration documents. Azizmamad Ashurov, who lives in Khujand, organises transport to Moscow, and says he even allows travellers to pay for the trip later. A lot of people who come to me dont have the money for the trip. I give them a loan, and when they earn some money they pay me back, he said. OTHER MEANS OF TRANSPORT CAN PROVE CHEAPER IN THE END The potential for things to go wrong has put some travellers off taking the bus altogether. Rustam Qadyrov of Khujand has decided that this method of travel is a false economy. Initially it did seem cheaper, but it can actually end up more expensive than travelling by plane. Its costly and dispiriting. You sit in the bus for eight or ten days instead of the three days they promised it would take, he said. Akram, a resident of Bobojongafur district, also in Soghd, has been travelling to Russia for ten years, but gave up taking the bus a long time ago. At the beginning I thought the cheapest way to get to Russia was by bus, he said. Once, because of delays on the border, the journey took eight days. My legs swelled up during this time. After that nightmare, I started travelling by plane. But with so many Tajiks desperate to reach Russia, shady companies are likely to stay in business for some time to come, even if they are no longer allowed to advertise. Migrant workers in Soghd told IWPR that the individual responsible for the fiasco in which 300 workers were sent back from Kazakstan continues to arrange travel to Russia. He is said to have repaid the groups travel expenses and none of them ever reported him to the police. At the bus station in Khujand, Lutfiddin Boboev waited with the others hoping to make it to Perm even though he was only too aware of what might befall them. Ive seen with my own eyes the way that Tajik migrants crossing the border are treated, and I was dismayed at my own lack of rights. No one can protect us, he said. I am still defenceless, but theres no other choice. Bakhtior Valiev, Rano Babajanova and Akmali Kadam are IWPR contributors in Khujand. REAPING AN UNRIPE HARVEST IN UZBEKISTAN Cumbersome state planning and a shortage of harvesting equipment means wheat is being gathered in before it is ready, just to meet deadlines. By IWPR staff in Central Asia Farmers in Uzbekistan are angry that due to pressure to meet state targets, as well as a shortage of farm machinery, officials are forcing them to gather the wheat crop before it has fully ripened. On June 1, the wheat harvesting season began in Uzbekistan with local authorities dispatching combine harvesters to gather in the crop. With over 120,000 farms in the country, agriculture plays an important role in the Uzbek economy and contributes about one third of gross domestic product. Farmers who lease their land from the state are still subject to Soviet-style controls and production quotas for the staple wheat and the more profitable cotton. In 2006, around six million tonnes of wheat were harvested and delivered to the state. According to forecasts from official media, the current harvest will be bigger than last years, but there is no mention of the fact that a proportion of the grain will be poor quality because the ears have been cut before they are ripe. Local authorities are under intense pressure to meet large crop quotas, and if they fail, then they can be reprimanded by central government and governors can even lose their jobs. There is a shortage of both combine harvesters and the fuel to run them, so the regional authorities work to tight schedules, deciding when the crops should harvested according to which areas have the most ripened wheat at any given time. The harvesters are then sent out to the fields, each one accompanied by three policemen and a fireman to make sure the operation goes smoothly and the harvested crop is not stolen or sold privately by the farmer. The few combine harvesters available must remain in operation continuously during the harvest season to get round all the countrys farms. Agricultural scientists say the tight schedule, combined with pressure on local authorities to be the first to meet government targets for grain production, means crops are regularly harvested before they have fully ripened. The nature of irrigation systems in this largely arid country means that some patches of crops will get more water than others and will therefore ripen earlier. The combines are forced to gather the entire harvest in one area and only move on to other places afterwards The second cause is that the regions compete to be the first to report that the state plan has been fulfilled, said an agricultural expert in Bukhara, a city in western Uzbekistan. Unripe crops have little value and while the state-monopoly purchasing centres are supposed to buy all the grain that farmers deliver, many of them reject unripe wheat or pay a lower price for it. The urge to get harvesting over as quickly as possible is not just resulting in low-quality grain, but is not even a guarantee that a region like Bukhara will meet its production targets. Bukharas Karaulbazar district, a flat, semidesert zone, is one of the countrys biggest wheat-producing areas. But by all accounts the crop is disappointing after a rush to bring it in. The harvesters have moved on to Shafirkan district, where unripe wheat is being cut along with the ripe. One farmer from the Karaulbazar district, a sunburnt man of 50 in a cap turned grey from dust, said he found it frustrating to watch unripe wheat being cut, but realised that he needed the combine and that it would not be returning at a later date. If it werent for the combine, who would gather the crop the people? he said. I have a large number of hectares of land under wheat. When a combine enters the field, it cant separate the ripe from the unripe. This year, the same thing will happen, he said. Three years ago, this farmer came to the attention of the local authorities when he refused to allow harvesting to take place on his land. His attempt to delay the harvest lasted only a week. No, I didnt let the combines in, because my wheat was not ripe. But the result was the same the harvest was gathered anyway, he said. Farmers struggle to find a use for the unripe wheat they are left with, and either use it to feed animals or make poor quality bread out of it. They dry out the grains and try to ripen them a little more by spreading them out on the ground. Its very hard to sell this grain. Either the animals will eat it, or it will rot in the barn, said one local farmer. Several years ago, farmers in Karaulbazar district interviewed by RFE/RL radio spoke about how unhappy they were with the restrictive rules they had to abide by for the harvest. That would be impossible now since the Andijan violence of 2005, the Uzbek government has clamped down even further on attempts to express dissent. Weve been forbidden to say were unhappy that grain is being cut from our fields before it ripens, said another farmer from the district, who said he feared being called in by Uzbekistan feared National Security Service. They control everything in the country now - even my dissatisfaction about my own harvest. The parcelling out of land from the old Soviet collective farms theoretically gave the new private farmers more control over their lives. But the states retention of ownership of the land and the continuation of the state order system means the farmers remain dependent on the government. If this field really was mine and I didnt have to hand the wheat over to the state, I would be a millionaire now, not poor and bankrupt, said one man. This system is unlikely to change, but the agricultural expert interviewed for this story offered one practical solution the authorities should acquire more agricultural machinery for the centralised pools they lend out to farmers. The shortage of combine harvesters is, he argues, the main reason why wheat is reaped before it is ready. The equipment is good, but there isnt enough of it to cover the entire country, so they take desperate measures to gather in all the wheat - ripe or unripe - and avoid losing the harvest, he said. **** www.iwpr.net ******************************************************************** REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA provides the international community with a unique insiders' perspective on the region. Using our network of local journalists, the service publishes news and analysis from across Central Asia on a weekly basis. The service forms part of IWPR's Central Asia Project based in Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent and London, which supports media development and encourages better local and international understanding of the region. IWPR's Reporting Central Asia is supported by the UK Community Fund. The service is published online in English and Russian. The opinions expressed in Reporting Central Asia are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR. REPORTING CENTRAL ASIA: Editor-in-Chief: Anthony Borden; Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan; Senior Editor: John MacLeod; Central Asia Programme Manager: Saule Mukhametrakhimova; Editor in Bishkek: Kumar Bekbolotov. 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