Residents of the Quyi Chirchiq district in the Tashkent region forcibly mobilized to the cotton fields
Residents of the Quyi Chirchiq district in the Tashkent region were forcibly mobilized to the cotton fields.
On September 17, 2016 the human rights activist Elena Urlaeva met with the doctors of the central hospital in the city of Dustabad (Tashkent region). Doctors explained that the doctors – surgeons, neuropathologists, therapists – are forced to go from door to door and try to persuade the residents to pick cotton.
Each doctor is assigned to one street, and he/she must visit each home and persuade one person in each family to pick cotton. On weekends, all doctors are required to pick cotton, together with the head of the hospital Gulbahor Sagieva.
Moreover, a doctor working in the village clinic said that he and all the medical staff of the clinic are forced to pick cotton in the village “Новая жизнь” (New Life) .
In the cotton fields located near the village Agamay, in the group №868, doctors of the infectious hospitals and the clinic №9, teachers and kindergarten nurses, and schools teachers №14, №42 and №31 were forced to pick cotton.
Parents of the students going to the school №28 said that the director of the school obliges parents of each student to either pick cotton or give money to pay for a hired worker.
Residents of the mahalla “Yunusov” and the mahalla “Ming Chinor” in the city Dustabad told that the police and the representants of the National Security Service go from door to door and force one person in each family to pick cotton.
The mobilization of the city residents follows the orders of Jahongir Abdurazakova, the hokim of the district Nizhnechirchikskogo.
Human Rights Alliance demand the law enforcement bodies of Uzbekistan to investigate all the facts, and require prosecution of the hokim Jahongir Abdurazakov and the school directors who extort money and force parents to pick cotton.
Press Center of the Human Rights Aliance. 17 September 2016, Tashkent
