Human trafficking: how the US state department ranks your country

Human trafficking: a child soldier in Sierra Leone in just one of the forms of enforced slavery around the world identified by the State Department

How bad is human trafficking around the world? The US State Department has published a detailed examination of the issue, ranking every major country across the globe.
For anyone who thought slavery vanished with William Wilberforce, the report is a rude awakening. It details thousands of cases around the world in 180 countries where:

people may be trafficking victims regardless of whether they were born into a state of servitude or were transported to the exploitative situation, whether they once consented to work for a trafficker, or whether they participated in a crime as a direct result of being trafficked. At the heart of this phenomenon are the myriad forms of enslavement – not the activities involved in international transportation

Human trafficking mapped by the US state department. Click image for the graphic
The major forms of human trafficking covered by the report include:
• Forced labour
• Sex trafficking
• Bonded labour - where a worker's debt is exploited. it doesn't have to be current, the report highlights South Asia where "it is estimated that there are millions of trafficking victims working to pay off their ancestors' debts"
• Forced child labour and sex trafficking
• Forced domestic servitude
• Child soldiers: the report says "many children are forcibly abducted to be used as combatants. Others are unlawfully made to work as porters, cooks, guards, servants, messengers, or spies. Young girls can be forced to marry or have sex with male combatants. Both male and female child soldiers are often sexually abused and are at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases"

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