Dear John,

Will you help us fight forced labor with a tax-deductible gift before the end of the year? [link removed]

Last week the repressive government of Turkmenistan ordered workers in several regions to return to the cotton fields to pick the last bits of remaining cotton. For teachers, medical workers, and other state employees that means a return to forced labor where they will have to go to the fields or pay money to hire a cotton picker to work in their place. If they refuse, they can be fired from their jobs. These employees had just settled back to work after more than three months of forced labor picking cotton or paying replacement pickers from meager government salaries since late August. Even though speaking out in Turkmenistan is dangerous, some pickers left a powerful message, spelling out “We're sick of it” in cotton balls.

Your solidarity and support have been critical in fighting forced labor in Central Asia. This fall labor rights monitor and ILRF honoree Gaspar Matalaev was released from prison in Turkmenistan after serving a three-year sentence in retaliation for his reporting on forced labor in the cotton fields.

In Uzbekistan, years of hard work made possible by your support have begun to achieve real success. In the last year, the government turned to the Cotton Campaign to provide recommendations for reform and together we delivered a comprehensive blueprint of measures to end forced labor and promote worker rights. The government is taking steps to make change, but there is much more work to do.

You may have seen that The Economist called Uzbekistan “the country of the year” for coming so far so fast. We agree that there has been positive momentum, in part due our push to end forced labor. But the lasting change we are working for takes time. Under pressure to deliver cotton quotas, this fall Uzbek officials again sent bank employees, state factory and utility workers, cadets, and prisoners to pick cotton against their will or pay money to pay for a replacement picker. Cadets at a fire safety institute forced to pick cotton wrote to a news outlet: “We are begging you to help us. We are in a very difficult situation. Nobody listens to us, so we are addressing you.”

In the next year, as the organization housing the Cotton Campaign, we plan to ramp up the pressure on the government of Turkmenistan to end forced labor. And we will work to make sure the reform process underway in Uzbekistan takes hold so that people there are protected from forced labor.

Will you stand with us as we fight to end forced labor across Central Asia? [link removed]

In solidarity,

Judy Gearhart
Executive Director

P.S. If you are not yet part of our pool of monthly donors, please join today: [link removed]. Whether you contribute the price of a coffee, a movie ticket, or more, it means so much to us that you’re with us in this fight for the long haul.

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Please consider joining ILRF as a monthly donor to help sustain our ability to stand with labor rights defenders around the world: [link removed]

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