Uzbekistan Aims to End Forced Labor in Cotton Fields

Soviet-era holdover has displaced people from their jobs at harvest time, hurt exports as big brands shun the industry

Thomas Grove | Photographs and Video by Elyor Nematov for Wall Street Journal

Updated Dec. 17, 2018 3:27 p.m. ET

OK-OLTIN, Uzbekistan—In previous years, local health inspector Abdusamat Kurbanov would have earned high praise and fat kickbacks for forcing hundreds of workers to leave their day jobs and pick cotton in Uzbekistan’s sweltering cotton fields for weeks at a stretch.

This year, his efforts, which once drew praise, nearly got him fired, the government said.

The...