A new joint report by leading independent Turkmen human rights groups exposes systemic forced labor and extortion during the 2020 cotton harvest in Turkmenistan amid pandemic denial and rising economic crisis in the country. The Human Trafficking Legal Center will present evidence that cotton from Turkmenistan taints global supply chains in spite of import bans and other measures. As the world increasingly focuses on forced labor in East Turkestan (Xinjiang), this groundbreaking report documents that forced labor in the cotton sector is not isolated to a specific country or supply chain. Instead, forced labor in any individual country is enabled by global kleptocratic institutions that launder both the unethical origins of cotton picked with forced labor and the financial proceeds.

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