Tuesday, September 17th, 2024
Author: Lisa Michelutto
Country: Italy
SUMMARY
Human trafficking, particularly of newborns, is a growing issue in Kazakhstan. Newborns are being sold with online platforms facilitating these crimes. The government introduced new laws in July 2024 to strengthen the prosecution of trafficking. Additionally, a pilot project launched in 2023 assigns identification numbers to newborns to prevent illegal sales. However, challenges remain, including the use of surrogacy for trafficking. The Kazakh government is studying global practices to better address the issue.
BACKGROUND
Human trafficking, particularly of infants, is a significant global issue. Obviously there are countries more and less affected by this problem, and to analyze one of the most serious cases it is appropriate to look at Kazakhstan. According to a UN article (Konyorova, 2024), Gulnaz Kelekeyeva, who heads the UN NGO project 'Kazakhstan's Actions in Combating Child Trafficking, stated that “Unfortunately, in Kazakhstan, there has been virtually no nationwide research on socially vulnerable children and the vulnerability of children to trafficking and exploitation.” “There are also no accurate statistics to assess the true scale of the problem.”
The situation in Kazakhstan has deteriorated, with reports of infants being sold for up to $4500 (Konyorova, 2024). In response to these concerns, the Kazakh government introduced new legislation in July 2024. This will facilitate the prosecution of crimes such as kidnapping, human trafficking and prostitution (Konyorova, 2024).
Trafficking in infants and children has also developed over the years because of the Internet, in fact many criminals now organize everything online. For this reason, Gulnaz Kelekeyeva (Konyorova, 2024) warned that a thorough study and analysis should be made in this regard.
Also doctors and obstetricians were found guilty of selling newborn babies in a hospital in Kazakhstan
in 2023 (Konyorova, 2024). Therefore, decisive action is crucial to prevent and combat child trafficking.
Unfortunately, in fact, child trafficking is not limited to buying and selling, but it also involves the sale of organs, sexual exploitation and forced labor (Konyorova, 2024).
The Kazakh government has implemented several measures to address this issue. Besides adopting the July 2024 law we already mentioned, from 2023 they adopted a pilot project. This project assigns an identification number to every newborn, making trafficking more difficult (Konyorova, 2024).
This project consists of giving an identification number to every newborn, so that their trafficking becomes no longer possible. This project started in 2023 in one hospital in Astana, the country’s capital, but in 2024 it will be extended to every hospital (Konyorova, 2024).
However, it is not a simple issue. Many new techniques are being used to traffic children. For example, the possibility of insemination constitutes a problem because women are used as “incubators to bear children”. The result is that, when born, the child holds the DNA of both the mother and the father, of course. The issue is that if he is the father, he has the right to take the newborn abroad (Konyorova, 2024). This cannot be controlled. Sergei Ponomarev, member of the Kazakh Parliament, stated that they are studying other countries’ experiences on this matter (Konyorova, 2024).
In conclusion, combating newborn trafficking remains challenging, as criminals continue to exploit new technologies and methods.
REFERENCES
Konyorova, K. (July 30th, 2024). Kazakhstan tightens laws to combat trafficking of newborns. UN News. https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/07/1151491
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