- Title: RUSSIA: Moscow activist uncovers possible case of slavery
- Date: 1st November 2012
- Summary: YOUNG MAN WATCHING BAKIYA WITH SON TALKING ON MOBILE AKHMEDOV, KASIMOVA, HER DAUGHTER WITH SON IN ROOM
- Embargoed: 16th November 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Russian Federation
- Country: Russia
- Topics: Crime
- Reuters ID: LVA29C9J63ZUSI2K1F45ZZAAQ1P3
- Story Text: Russia's Investigative Committee on Tuesday (October 30) began looking into a case of migrant women, claiming to have been held as slaves in a Moscow basement for the past ten years.
The story began on Tuesday when a kidnapping of three children was reported to Moscow officials. The children were allegedly taken from a Moscow grocery store.
The children were later found, but a man calling himself an activist said two women being held as slaves were also found at the grocery store, located underneath a Moscow apartment building.
Video taken by activist Danila Medvedev showed a woman from Central Asia at the grocery store crying, and hugging another woman after journalists and activists stormed the store.
The activist, said the case was just one of many incidents of slavery in Moscow.
"Six years ago, a survey on human traffic was conducted at the UN's request and it said that there are half a million to one million people in Russia who are practically living as slaves here. So it's not just that they have low salary and short vacation, but these are people who are physically held and made to work without being paid for it," activist Danila Medvedeva said, adding "There might be 50,000 or 100,00 such slaves in Moscow, but as our law enforcement agencies are totally censoring the word 'slavery' and denying that this problem exists, we don't know how many of them there are in reality. But we can definitely say, and I can take responsibility for this figure, that just at the facilities which belong to the owners of this shop (showed on video) there must be at least 20 persons held in slavery whom we haven't seen so far."
One of the women claiming to have been held as a slave, is Bakiya, a 35-year old woman from Uzbekistan.
Bakiya's mother, Tumar, claimed her daughter had been missing for 10 years.
"For ten years she (her daughter) has been held in there. Before we found her, I hadn't seen her for ten years. This is it, I have nothing to add," Tumar told Reuters.
Bakiya said she was illegally held and mis-treated by her captors.
"They were beating and beating me. They beat me with hands, with batons, with a metal foil roll. They were beating me for three days, my head swelled here, it swelled everywhere, the whole face had become a bruise, and I couldn't really work for three months, I had to work in storage, my head was like a bruise, my eyes closed shut, and I couldn't see anything," Bakiya told Reuters.
Another woman, Adyl, said she was also held as a slave.
"We couldn't do it for a long time (call for help) as everybody was afraid even of himself. We were being punished for every single word which our master didn't like. That's why everybody was afraid," Adyl said.
According to Russia's Investigative Committee the women had given birth to their children while in Moscow, but at the time of the children's birth they had not reported being kept as slaves to any law enforcement officials.
Russia attracts millions of migrants from former Soviet Union states, which depend on their remittances.
In cities they are often attacked by skinheads and other nationalists, and are easy prey for corrupt police who extort bribes for minor violations. Polls show xenophobia increasing.
Many migrants toil at construction sites for meagre salaries and live in crowded barracks where infectious diseases are widespread and which are regularly raided by the Federal Migration Service. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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