“On August 25 the Ashgabat-based President Hotel hosted a training session devoted to the topic “Prevention and fight against human trafficking”. The seminar was organized by Turkmenistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Turkmen National Institute for Democracy and Human Rights under the President of Turkmenistan and the OSCE Centre in Turkmenistan. The seminar brought together officials from the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Justice, Mejlis deputies and law-enforcement officers, employees from social security, education and healthcare departments, as well as staff members from foreign missions and international organizations.

In the course of the seminar thematic overview reports were made by experts from UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), Europol, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. The attendees expressed their conviction that the forum would be instrumental in integrating the efforts in developing joint initiatives to combat this negative phenomenon of the present day”.

It is an open secret that Turkmenistan is one of the most closed countries in the world and such a training session is just a formality. Human trafficking has existed before and still exists. In other words, the training session was conducted but no facts on human trafficking were made available.

I decided to fill this vacuum. I have nothing personal against the Turkmen authorities but lying does not help. It is high time that the existence of this problem is recognized.

I recently returned from the United Arab Emirates, where I had a chance to meet a married couple, who called themselves Oleg and Natalya Klyuchagins and said that they were from Turkmenistan. This couple is involved in the tourism business in Dubai. They own the Russel Tour company, which brings in tourists from Turkmenistan. Moreover, they are even involved in human trafficking.

We met by chance. I was having a coffee in the bar at the Radisson Blue hotel and analyzing my trip. Oleg and Natalya sat down at my table, we introduced ourselves and started up a conversation. They showed interest in my business and were nostalgic about the USSR. Afterwards they suggested I have fun.

They were offering females of Turkmen ethnicity of all ages and for all tastes, just for one night or for permanent use. They showed me photos. In the beginning I was shocked but then I decided to find out more in order to make it public.

They explained that the travel industry is just a cover up for legalizing the export of young females from Turkmenistan. Their main source of revenue is pandering and human trafficking. The demand is huge. I listened very carefully and was astonished by the lack of moral values and impunity.

This couple rents several apartments and villas in Dubai, where females from Turkmenistan are brought for prostitution. Upon arrival at Abu-Dhabi airport, their passports and money are confiscated. They are put in a car and taken to some apartments. They are intimidated and raped whilst photos are taken and videos shot. Females are persecuted both morally and sometimes tortured physically. Women are blackmailed into engaging in prostitution – they are told that the photos and video material would be sent to their relatives.

I asked how they manage to convince Turkmen women to go to the United Arab Emirates. As far as I know Turkmenistan has strict rules for women. Natalya explained that there are no jobs in her home country and it is complicated to get married– men are either drug-addicts or imprisoned. Turkmen females are seduced to come to the Emirates with an employment proposal to work as nurses and then the scheme works smoothly.

Then they showed me photos of women and offered me to choose one. Oleg recommended a young girl, who was recently brought in to the country to be sold as a sex slave for 8000 dirhams, equivalent to $2200. “She is yours, you can do what you want as nobody will be looking for her». I was shocked. According to the couple, many of their female slaves are reported missing and this does not bother anybody. Natalya says that they (Turkmen women) are castaways in their home country and nobody will be searching for them here.

Then they complained about the crisis and said that the Ramadan holiday triggered a diminishing demand for their “commodity”. They also complained about a rival company headed by people of Turkmen ethnicity.

I took the photos and said that I would call later after I had made my choice and then they approached another table where some Arab men were sitting.

The photo shows the girl which was offered to me.  I found out that she was resold to Turkey. Another photo features a couple who called themselves the Klyuchagins. The video shows the couple meeting “human slaves” at Abu-Dhabi airport.

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Our comment

The author of the article, Evgeny Lesin, is not our correspondent and does not reside in Turkmenistan.  We can not confirm that what was written is true and do not bear any responsibility for the accuracy of the information. However, nobody can contradict the fact that such an ugly phenomenon as human trafficking is existent. As was already mentioned, we are publishing these materials in the hope that the appropriate Turkmen services will do something about the situation and attempt to resolve the problem.

We acknowledge that in Turkmenistan all problems are resolved with the help of one method only– by imposing bans. In particular, under S. Niyazovs’ presidency young women up to 35 years were not allowed to exit the country. However, as is evident, even though the ban is still in effect it can easily be bypassed.

Therefore the problem should be solved based on the premise that Turkmen residents are urged to leave the country driven by unemployment and lack of belief in a better future, rather than their desire to become slaves. Those who leave the country are not criminals but victims. The fight should be initiated against criminals – panders (according to the author, this material is sufficient to initiate a criminal case). The authorities should create jobs for young people in Turkmenistan or facilitate their legal employment abroad.

It should be noted, that according to our sources, the recent travel ban for students enrolled in universities abroad was explained by the Turkmen authorities to foreign diplomats in part by the fact that according to their statistics about 500 young Turkmenistan residents died or were reported missing in Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan in recent years. Furthermore, the moves by our authorities are allegedly dictated by the safety concerns for Turkmen residents. The problem is not about whether the law-enforcement agencies of the neighboring countries confirm the statistical data or not but the only method our authorities are familiar with is a travel ban.

UNODC, EUROPOL and the OSCE, which participated in the aforementioned seminar, should keep a close watch on how the authorities of Turkmenistan resolve the human trafficking issue. At least, we are calling on them to do so.