How cotton picked with forced labor in Turkmenistan finds its way to the high street

A new report by Anti-Slavery International reveals how cotton picked with forced labor in Turkmenistan makes its way to high street shops across the world. Every year, tens of thousands of public sector workers, including teachers and doctors, are forced by the government to pick cotton at the harvest, under threat of punishment, according to the International Labor Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Committee. The only way of getting out of the duty is by paying a bribe or hiring someone else to work on your behalf. Data gathered by cotton harvest monitors linked to Anti-Slavery International’s partner Alternative Turkmenistan News (ATN) estimate that, during the 2016 cotton harvest, about 49,000 teachers were engaged in picking cotton.