"According to official information, 1,449 people fell victim to crimes related to human trafficking over the first nine months of this year," Rashidjon Qodirov said.

"Over the past nine months of this year, the country’s law enforcement agencies opened 436 criminal cases over human trafficking against 339 people, and 203 of them are men and 136 are women," the article says.

"Analyses show that our country’s citizens are being taken to the UAE, Kazakhstan, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, India, Israel, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Costa Rica with the aim of forcing them into prostitution. They are being trafficked to Kazakhstan and Russia for forced labour and services," it adds.