LEBAP PROVINCE, Turkmenistan -- Thousands of teachers, health-care workers, and other state employees in Turkmenistan have been forced to pick cotton as the annual harvest season kicked off in August amid scorching summer heat.
In the eastern Lebap Province, the government has ordered all state agencies to mobilize 50 percent of their staff for cotton picking during weekdays, several workers told RFE/RL.
During the weekends, however, all employees must work in the fields, they said. Local residents said that, in some regions, army soldiers are also picking cotton.
The workers are required to pick 20-25 kilos of cotton a day. The work is very hard manual labor and temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Celsius create brutal working conditions, workers complained.
“There were teachers, doctors, museum workers, librarians, train-station employees, and even airport workers in the fields on the weekend,” said a 40-year-old Lebap resident who was among the cotton pickers on August 20. The man requested anonymity for security reasons but said he works for an energy company.
“There were representatives of the regional government in the field, checking who has come to work and who wasn’t present,” he added.
'There Is No Way To Escape It'
Those who refuse to pick cotton have been threatened with dismissal from their jobs, Lebap workers claimed. The employees spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal in a country where dissension is not tolerated by the government.
“There is no way to escape it. If you don’t go you will get fired,” the energy-sector employee said, adding that those few who can afford it, bribe officials or hire someone else to pick cotton instead of them.
A bribe of about $115 to $140 can spare you from cotton picking, workers claimed. Hiring replacement pickers costs about $8.50 to $14 a day.
“There are many teenagers in the fields who have been hired by state workers,” one employee said. “The managers don’t care who is picking cotton as long as the daily cotton production quota [set by the government] is met.”
Government officials didn’t respond to RFE/RL’s requests for comment.
'We Were In The Mud Up To Our Knees'
In Balkan Province, a 60-year-old teacher said many of his fellow employees’ salaries are too meager to hire help.
“Teachers and doctors say that they don’t make $14 a day, so they have to pick cotton themselves,” the teacher said. “There was a heavy rain in the Gyzylarbat district [on August 20] and we were in the mud up to our knees while picking cotton.”
People who live far from the cotton fields have to pay for transport to get there, the workers said.
Most employers reportedly don’t allow their staff to take vacation during the harvest season, which begins in mid-August and often lasts until early December.
The government of the authoritarian Central Asian has set a goal of harvesting 1.25 million tons of cotton this year. Turkmenistan has about 580,000 hectares of cotton fields.
State media frequently reports that the government has purchased hundreds of tractors and other machines from abroad used to harvest cotton, including from the U.S. company John Deere.
Workers in Lebap, however, said there were no cotton-picking machines in sight in the fields, where cotton was being harvested manually by state employees and farmers.
Turkmenistan has long been criticized by rights defenders and international organizations for its systemic use of forced labor in the annual cotton harvest.
Despite compelling evidence, the government continues to deny forcing employees, students, and soldiers to pick cotton.
Written by Farangis Najibullah in Prague based on RFE/RL Turkmen Service reporting.
