Human Rights groups’ report claims child and forced labour still used for cotton picking in Turkmenistan
How Turkmenistan uses child and forced labour in cotton picking – a new report
29.05.2025
Article published on the rus.azattyq.org website
A coalition of human rights advocates has released a 2024 report, revealing how Turkmenistan uses forced labour in gathering the cotton harvest. The country is the world’s 14th largest cotton producer.
What does the report say?
The report was released by a group of human rights activists: Turkmen News, the Turkmenistan Human Rights Initiative, the Progres Foundation and the Campaign for Fair Cotton. Information in the report was collected by anonymous observers in different parts of the country.
According to the report, civil servants, teachers and technical workers are forced to pick cotton from August to November every year. Refusing to do so means they must pay for replacement workers out of their own pockets.
Last year on average, teachers had to pay between AZN 500 ($25.6) and AZN 1,200 ($61.5) per replacement, the equivalent of a sixth to a third of their monthly salary.
“The authorities don’t care about our financial situation – they just demand that we pay. People are afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs and left destitute if they don’t comply. Everyone is intimidated”, one civil servant told the report’s authors off the record.
Child labour
Turkmenistan officially outlawed child labour in 2024 amid EU plans to ban the country’s cotton imports. Despite this, children are still being used to pick cotton, says the report.
“Parents agree to let their children pick cotton, hoping they will be able to earn an additional income of five to ten manat ($0.26-$0.50) per day as many families are struggling financially these days. This year many schoolchildren don’t have access to even the most basic school equipment”, said a teacher in Lebap province.
Last year, the Government raised cotton picking rates from 0.6 to one manat per kilogram ($0.03 to $0.051), which encouraged villagers to pick cotton along with their children. A family of five could pick 180-200 kg per day, earning up to $10.3 daily, totalling $308 per month.
Some children picked up to 40-50 kg a day in order to earn money to buy school equipment.
Working conditions
Picking cotton involves strenuous physical labour. At the start of the harvest, temperatures in the fields can reach 40 degrees Centigrade. Gatherers work in the open air without any shade and a shortage of drinking water. By the end of the season in December, temperatures routinely fall to below zero, with people forced to work in cold and wet conditions.
The fields are treated with pesticides, yet the pickers are not issued with gloves, masks or any other protective equipment.
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Turkmen Service, Radio Azattyq, students, soldiers are those arrested for administrative offences are also involved in the cotton work and not just in the picking.
In May this year, one soldier told a reporter that conscripts were being forced to work under threat of beatings and only allowed to rest with their commanders’ permission. This has resulted in more frequent cases of absenteeism without leave from military units and led to increased surveillance of passenger flows at bus and railway stations.
Turkmenistan’s international reputation
Due to the use of child and forced labour, in 2018, the USA banned cotton imports from the country, followed in 2021 by a call from the European Parliament for a ban on imports of Turkmen goods made by slave labour.
Turkey is the main buyer of Turkmenistan’s cotton products, which are also used by manufacturers in Pakistan, Italy, Poland and Portugal.
