WASHINGTON – Up to 27 million people are living in slavery around the world, the annual report into human trafficking unveiled Wednesday.
But the report showed that as governments become more aware of the issue, instigating tough new laws and programs to help victims, progress is being made in wiping out what it called the “scourge of trafficking.”
“The end of legal slavery in the United States and in other countries around the world has not, unfortunately, meant the end of slavery,” said Clinton.
“Today it is estimated as many as 27 million people around the world are victims of modern slavery, what we sometimes call trafficking in persons,” she said at the unveiling of the report at the state department.
“Those victims of modern slavery are women and men, girls and boys, and their stories remind us of the kind of inhumane treatment we are capable of as human beings,” said Clinton.
“Whatever their background, they are the living, breathing reminders that the work to eradicate slavery remains unfinished.”
Children work in a paddy field at Gobindpura village in Bathinda district of Punjab on World Day against Child Labour. HT/Kulbir Beera
Out of the 185 countries included in the 2012 report, only 33 complied fully with laws in place to end human trafficking, putting them at the top of a four-tier ranking system.
On India, the report states that the country is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking.
India, however, has maintained its position at tier 2, which it climbed to in 2011. Tier 2 is defined as a country whose government does not fully comply with the TVPA’s (Trafficking Victims Protection Act) minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
“The forced labor of millions of its citizens constitutes India’s largest trafficking problem; men, women, and children in debt bondage are forced to work in industries such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories. A common characteristic of bonded labor is the use of physical and sexual violence as coercive tools,” it says.
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