Cablegate: Uzbekistan: Follow Up On Dol Request for Information On

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DE RUEHNT #0099 0571024
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R 261024Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY TASHKENT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1947
INFO ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
CIS COLLECTIVE
NATO EU COLLECTIVE
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0116
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS TASHKENT 000099

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
DOL/ILAB FOR LEYLA STROTKAMP, RACHEL RIGBY AND TINA MCCARTER
DRL/ILCSR FOR SARAH MORGAN
G/TIP FOR LUIS CDEBACA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM ELAB PGOV UZ
SUBJECT: Uzbekistan: Follow up on DOL Request for Information on
Child Labor and Forced Labor

REF: 10 TASHKENT 59; 2/24/2010 E-MAIL FROM BRANDIE SASSER

1. (U) Post submitted its response to DOL's request for
information on child labor and forced labor in Ref A. DOL
requested follow up information in Ref B regarding the use of adult
labor in the production of goods, pursuant to Task 1 under the
TVPRA.

2. (U) Adult forced labor (in addition to child labor) is
used in the production of cotton. Most often, local administrators
will instruct government workers to pick cotton during the annual
fall harvest, usually for four to six weeks. Teachers, medical
workers, local bureaucrats, and sometimes even police officers
leave their regular duties to participate in the harvest (teachers
often serve as de facto "foremen" for their students in the field).
Following the harvest, these workers return to their normal duties.
There are no statistics on how many people are involved in such
practices, but there have been reports that the numbers increased
during the 2009 harvest, perhaps because fewer children worked the
fields this year.

3. (U) Please note that cotton is already on DOL's current
TVPRA list of goods. Post has received no other reports of adult
forced labor.

NORLAND
NORLAND

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