World Bank funding tied to forced labor in Uzbekistan: HRW

Mounting evidence shows World Bank funds are tied to forced and child labor in the authoritarian Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan, the world's fifth-largest cotton supplier, human rights organizations charged today.

The bank's continuing support undermines efforts to keep its cotton out of the global garment supply chain until it ends the use of forced labor, according to a report from Human Rights Watch and the NGO Uzbek-German Forum.

Forced labor remains systematic in Uzbekistan, and research by the organizations has documented the existence of the practice in a World Bank project area, the report said.

For the annual harvest, the government of Uzbekistan forces hundreds of thousands of people, including medical professionals, school teachers and children as young as 10, out into the fields to collect the crop, working long hours, human rights workers say.

"The World Bank is giving Uzbekistan cover for an abusive labor system in its cotton industry," Umida Niyazova, the Uzbek-German Forum's director, said in a statement, calling for a suspension of funding until the matter was resolved.

In 2015 and 2016, the Bank's investments in the country amounted to more than USD 500 million, according to the groups. And, rather than curtailing support for the Uzbekistan cotton sector, the World Bank has instead increased support and commercial investment, the statement said.

The World Bank told

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