The former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan is poised to begin the chemical castration of convicted paedophiles.

An unnamed sex attacker in the Turkestan region will be the first to undergo an injection supervised by the country's health ministry, officials announced.

The forcible castration is punishment for being found guilty of a child sex attack in April 2016.

Kazakhstan's Vice Minister of Health Lyazzat Aktaeva (front left) confirmed there had been one request for chemical castration

Aktayeva (pictured) also revealed that the government has allocated funds for more than 2,000 injections

President Nursultan Nazarbayev has allocated £20,500 for some 2,000 injections on men who commit sexual offences on children this year.

Deputy health minister Lyazat Aktayeva said: 'At the moment there has been one request for chemical castration in accordance with a court ruling.'

Kazakhstan introduced a new law on chemical castration at the start of this year.

'Funds have been allocated for more than 2,000 injections,' revealed Aktayeva.

Turkestan region psycho-neurological dispancer which was named as one of places in the region where the castration might take place

When the law was passed senator Byrganym Aitimova said that castration would be 'temporary', consisting of a 'one-time injection' based on 'the necessity of preventing the man from (committing) sexual violence'.

Child sex crimes also carry prison sentences of up to 20 years in Kazakhstan.

Unlike surgical castration, chemical castration leaves organs intact and is considered to be reversible in most cases; while the drugs reduce sex drive they do not prevent a person experiencing sexual urges indefinitely.

Sceptics argue that the measure, first performed in the 1940s, does not necessarily prevent future attacks.

Reports say the procedure in Kazakhstan will be carried out at regional psychoneurological clinics.

Doctors will administer Cyproterone, a steroidal anti-androgen developed for fighting cancer.

Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose government introduced a new law on chemical castration at the start of this year

Reports say the procedure in Kazakhstan will be carried out at regional psychoneurological clinics such as this one

Child rapes in the country doubled to around 1,000 a year in the period between 2010 and 2014.

In 2016, Indonesian president Joko Widodo authorised chemical castration for convicted child sex offenders following a national outcry over the gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl.

Chemical castration is not altogether unusual and a number of countries - including Poland, South Korea, Russia, Australia, as well as some American states - exchange more lenient prison sentences to paedophiles who agree to it.

In 1952, the famous British World War II code-breaker Alan Turing underwent a forced chemical castration to avoid a prison sentence as a punishment being gay.