Harvesting cotton in Uzbekistan (file photo) (ITAR-TASS)
July 20, 2006 -- Police in Kazakhstan have freed 13 Uzbeks who were trafficked into the country and forced to work in slave conditions.
Police say the Uzbek men and women were discovered in the back of a truck in the northwestern region of Aqtobe.
Two of the women had been raped.
As many as one million Uzbeks are believed to be working illegally in Kazakhstan.
(AFP)
RFE/RL Central Asia Report
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