Azerbaijani NGOs draft alternative report on trafficking

The coalition of Azerbaijani NGOs named "Network of Informing and Cooperation against Trafficking in Humans" is drafting a report on the situation with trafficking in the country. This report will be an alternative to the official report prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

With the aim of drafting the report, the Coalition held today a roundtable in Baku: "On the state of fighting trafficking in people in Azerbaijan".

The "Caucasian Knot" was informed by Alovsat Aliev that, unlike the MIA's report, the alternative one will study court judgements.

Mr Aliev has noted that "vesting the fight against trafficking to law-enforcement bodies only is wrong, as power agencies are most prone to corruption." Therefore, it is crucial to involve civil society in addressing the issue, as the expert said.

Lamiya Bairamova, leader of the public association "Centre of Social Law Studies", said that last year the MIA's department for counteracting trafficking in humans revealed 78 crimes connected with Article 144-1 ("Trafficking in humans") and one fact related to Article 144-2 ("Forced labour") of the Criminal Code. In her opinion, presenting Articles 243 ("Involvement to prostitution"), 244 ("Maintenance of brothels") and 151 ("Coercion to sexual actions") as the crimes related to trafficking in humans is incorrect.

With account of the above Articles, in total in 2008, 384 criminal facts were revealed. At the same time, Ms Bairamova has noted that in Azerbaijan, over 50,000 migrants work without labour contracts, and part of them are forced to work. In Azerbaijan, compulsion to labour is more widespread than to sexual exploitation, as the expert has emphasized.

Myuzaffar Bakhyshov, head of the Fund of State Law Researches, said that they had studied the verdicts related to human trafficking passed on 50 criminal cases in 2007-2008 by the Court on Grave Crimes. In the course of the studies it was revealed that traffickers kept changing their surnames, escaped residing where registered and had no permanent job.

It was also revealed that traffickers are awarded lesser punishments than stipulated by the existing legislation. Besides, it was revealed that for payment of compensations to victims of trafficking, no psychological examination was ever held during preliminary investigation or during trying by the court.

Mr Bakhyshov said about the problems with paying compensations still existing. For example, in 2008, 17 claims on compensation were initiated; however, none of them was enforced so far.