US report cites laundry list of countries involved in modern-day slavery

Modern-day slavery, from abuses of migrant workers to organized prostitution networks, continues to flourish in the Democratic Republic of Congo, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Estonia, with little effort by the countries' governments to combat it, the U.S. State Department said Monday.

And the number of countries failing to comply with international standards to prevent human trafficking nearly doubled to 23, Bloomberg reports, citing the department’s 2011 Trafficking in Persons report.

As many as 27 million men, women, and children were "living in a state of modern slavery," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement accompanying the report. "The problem of modern trafficking may be entrenched, and it may seem like there is no end in sight."

However, she said, since many countries had adopted anti-trafficking laws, the issue was increasingly one of enforcement.

"If we act on the laws that have been passed and the commitments that have been made, it is solvable," Cliinton said.

Considered one of the most comprehensive analyses of human trafficking, the annual report assesses efforts by 184 governments worldwide to fight sexual exploitation, forced labor and modern-day slavery. It ranks countries in a human trafficking watchlist, in three "tiers," illustrated in this graph on CNN.com:

Tier 1 countries meet the minimum guidelines but are expected to do more to rise above the baseline. Tier 2 countries do not meet the minimum standards but are making significant efforts to reach them. Tier 2 Watch countries do not meet the minimum standards and also have a large number of victims or there is no evidence of the anti-trafficking work being done. Tier 3 countries do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to meet them.

Tier 3 countries may "be subject to certain sanctions, whereby the U.S. government may withhold or withdraw nonhumanitarian, non-trade-related foreign assistance," the State Department said.

Clinton, while citing advances in countries such as Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates, said that the overall number of prosecutions worldwide "has remained relatively static."

Meanwhile, the report said women and children are sold into the sex trade in Russia, Estonia, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Spain, Greece, Belgium, Turkey, Israel, Lebanon and Egypt, among other countries.

Many victoms of trafficking were "subjected to conditions of forced labor" in Spain, Sweden, Norway, Finland and other advanced countries, according to the report.

Iran, meantime, was among the countries the report describes as "a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor."

David Abramowitz, Director of Policy and Government Relations at the human rights organization Humanity United, told GlobalPost: "This year's report offered an important test of political will on two fronts. First, in holding emerging powers such as China and India accountable for the massive prevalence of trafficking and slavery within their borders. Second, for the U.S. to hold itself accountable for its anti-trafficking efforts, even as programs are being slashed. "