Foreign Ministry disagrees with US report about slaves in Belarus


Belarusian Foreign Ministry responded to the report of the US State Department.

Several pages of the document called “Trafficking in Persons Report. June 2016” are dedicated to our country. They listed examples of forced labor in the country and violations of workers’ rights. Among them are forcing the unemployed to pay so-called “tax on parasites”, mandatory voluntary work, the prohibition to retire from the wood processing industry, etc.

Belarusian Foreign Ministry posted a comment on its page calling the report a “biased opus”.

Trade Union activists speaks about “slave salaries” in Belarus

“The State Department report is to be submitted to the US Congress under the US Law on the Protection of victims of trafficking. Protection of trafficking victims and trafficking in human beings are the concepts that are related, but not identical. Thus, the title of the report is not fully consistent with its aims and content which leads to differences in the estimates of the report by a number of foreign countries and the authors of the document,” explains in the comments the Deputy Chief of the press service of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maryia Vanshina.

Earlier this year, the study of Australian defenders in Belarus estimated the number of slaves at 44,600 people. Foreign Ministry described that study  as “funny”.

belsat.eu

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