With just over 5 million people, Turkmenistan is a country with the smallest population in Central Asia and only rarely receives global attention. Yet the tens of thousands of Turkmen people are forced to labor in the cotton fields each year by their government. The Turkmen government uses secrecy, fear and denial of economic opportunity to orchestrate and benefit from a forced labor system of cotton production. By forcing citizens to work, the Turkmen government violates International Labour Organization Convention No. 105 on the Prohibition of Forced Labour and section 8 of its national Labor Code.Alternative Turkmenistan News researched the information for this report with a network of key informants in Turkmenistan. Turkmen government officials, farmers, rural residents, publicsector workers and businessmen provided first-hand accounts, documentary evidence and photographs to ATN.