Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have ratified two ILO Conventions, intended specifically to combat the exploitation and trafficking of children.324 These are ILO Conventions No 138 ‘On the Minimum Age for Work’ and No 182 ‘On the Worst Forms of Child Labour’. This is labour that is “intolerable” and “unacceptable” (like slavery, debt-bondage, trafficking, sexual exploitation, drug-taking and armed conflict, amongst other). In 2003, the ILO carried out a Child Labour Survey that included Central Asia.325 Stateless children have not yet been the subject of a specific study, but they fit several of the categories identified in this one. The ILO found that children from marginalised groups are disproportionately involved in child labour; those from ethnic minorities in particular. In Central Asia, numbers of these may also be stateless. The ILO found too that regionally, child-trafficking is on the rise, with rural children being trafficked to urban centres or to wealthier neighbouring countries for exploitation. It identifies Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia as targets of international trafficking rings, that respectively move girls through the Russian Federation to Western Europe, and through China to Japan or Australia. As discussed above, human trafficking puts the victims at risk of statelessness as the nationality of the individuals concerned may be impossible to confirm. 4.5 Detention UNHCR does not have a comprehensive picture of the detention of stateless persons in the Central Asian region, including information about conditions of detention or the procedural guarantees stateless detainees enjoy. Identity-checking is common in Central Asian States upon access to public buildings and services, and confirming transactions, etc. Stateless persons who hold out-of-date USSR passports, or no identity documents at all, are therefore at regular risk of exposure. In all five States, people may be detained while the police establish their identity. In Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, stateless persons and State agencies both said that the risk of detention increases in big cities and settlements where law enforcement officers do not know the population. Stateless persons are more likely to be detained while their identity and the lawfulness of their residence in the country are established. In each State, UNHCR encountered individuals who had been repeatedly detained. Stateless persons at UNHCR’s Participatory Assessment in Dushanbe confirmed that short-term detention after a document check was a real risk to them. The 1996 Aliens Law of Tajikistan326 foresees administrative and criminal liability for persons who have invalid residency or ID, or for anyone who fails to comply with registration and residency rules, or regulations on stay, transit and travel in the territory of Tajikistan. Persons with expired documents, or with no documents, are therefore liable to detention. Other stateless persons who took part in the UNHCR’s Participatory Assessments in SouthKazakhstan and the Almaty Region did not mention detention for irregular residency; lack of ID or other grounds connected to their statelessness. This may have been because they were from small settlements where local authorities knew them and their reasons for not having valid ID or lawful residence permits. UNHCR recognises it may also have been that the presence of uniformed law enforcement officers at the meeting inhibited the conversation. In May 2010, the Kazakh Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that in the space of three days it had detained 1,119 individuals to establish 324 ILO Convention No 182 was ratified by Tajikistan in 2000; Kazakhstan in 2003, Kyrgyzstan in 2004, Uzbekistan in 2009 and Turkmenistan in 2010. ILO Convention No 138 on a Minimum Age for Work was ratified by Kyrgyzstan in 1992; Tajikistan in 1993; Kazakhstan in 2001 and Uzbekistan in 2009. Turkmenistan has not yet ratified the latter ILO Convention. 325 International Labour Organization, Child Labour in Europe and Central Asia: Problem and Response, 2003, available atwww.ilo.org. 326 Article 29, 1997 Law No 500 ‘On the Legal Status of Foreigners’ in Tajikistan, as amended in 2009. ~ 50 ~