The exploitation of minors is equated to people trafficking

Standards and requirements for citizens in their relation to minors have been toughened. Today's plenary session of the Parliament amended the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan Republic and the law "On Combating People Trafficking."

According to Ali Huseynli, the chairman of the Committee on Legal Policy and State Building of the Milli Mejlis, forced children under the age of majority to labor, is recognized as one of the types of trafficking, and is punishable by 12 years in prison.

Detain, concealment, transportation and transference of  minors for the purpose of exploitation will be qualified as trafficking.  The same type of crime is  also unlawful removal of human organs and biomedical experiments. These innovations have been  made to Article 144 of the Criminal Code and provide for penalties ranging from four to 12 years in prison.

For document fraud (presumably with a view to their forced use)  the guilty will be punished from one to  three years in prison. Similar sanctions will be applied against those who supply traffickers with false documents. -17D—