Two residents of Volgograd Region tell about slave labour in Kalmykia

Alexander Kozlov and Alexander Kolesnikov, residents of the Volgograd settlement of "Zarya", said that they had been kept against their will at livestock farms in Kalmykia.

An application about forced labour at livestock farms in the Oktiabrsky District of Kalmykia was submitted to the republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), Alexander Kozlov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on May 22.

According to Mr Kozlov, a private cab driver brought him to a livestock farm in the Oktiabrsky district of Kalmykia, treating him to drink before that. "I woke up already in Kalmykia ... I stayed there for two days and ran away," he has explained.

According to his story, a law enforcer is the actual owner of the farm; he demanded by phone from Alexander to return to the farm under the threat of applying to law enforcement bodies with an application about a theft, stating that Alexander had to work out the money spend by the owner for bringing the worker to the farm.

Since 2011, the time of founding the public movement "Alternative", which is fighting against modern slavery, they received about 20 applications for help from people who had been enslaved in Kalmykia, Oleg Melnikov, the head of the movement, told the "Caucasian Knot".

"If we take South Russia broadly – the North-Caucasian and the Southern Federal Districts (NCFD and SFD) – people are mostly kept in slavery here at livestock farms. In Kalmykia we registered about 20 such cases, in Dagestan – a little more, in Chechnya – a little less, in Ingushetia – 5-7 cases, in the Krasnodar Territory – about 40, and in the Rostov region – about 20-30," Mr Melnikov has stated.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 23, 2019 at 06:37 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.