"In all, 60 criminal cases over human trafficking were launched by the regional prosecutor’s office and interior agencies in the first eight months of this year. Out of them, 27 cases with charges against 34 people have been sent to court, and other criminal cases are still being investigated," the broadcast showed the regional prosecutor official, Alisher Akbarov, as saying.

The broadcast cited several cases of people who had fallen victims to human trafficking. A resident of Ferghana Region, jointly with his fellow countryman in Russia’s St Petersburg, have trafficked 10 people to St Petersburg to do hard work, the broadcast said.

"In accordance with their criminal plan, in June 2008 Qurbonov Musakhoja deceived 10 citizens of Uzbekistan, natives of Ferghana District in Ferghana Region, by promising them good jobs in a dairy in St Petersburg with 350-400 dollars wages as well as free meal four times a day. Musakhoja with his fellow countryman Vaqqoskhon employed our 10 citizens to do hard work instead of supplying them with the promised jobs. They threatened our citizens with physical force when they asked for their wages each month," the deputy head of the regional interior directorate’s investigation department, Shuhrat Boboyev, said speaking on TV.

The regional law enforcement agencies also uncovered another organized criminal group that trafficked women to Kazakhstan for sex slavery, the programme also said. "Having made a criminal plot with Kazakh citizens, Nilufar Toranova came to Ferghana and trafficked two girls to Kazakhstan for sex slavery. She has deceived the girls promising waitress’s job in restaurant. She forced the girls into prostitution and the girls had to practice prostitution in three months," the senior investigator of the regional interior directorate’s investigation department, Zoir Abduganiyev, said.

The broadcast went on to highlight the problem of using mobile phones as a tool for distribution of immoral pictures and clips.