U.S. State Department ranks countries in new report
Governments in the Democratic Republic of Congo, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran have made little effort to control thriving human trafficking industries, the U.S. State Department said in a report released on Monday. The department’s 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report is considered one of the most complete analyses of human trafficking and looks at 184 governments’ efforts to battle sexual exploitation, forced labour and slavery. The department says 27 million people worldwide are victims of human trafficking. The report also lists some countries such as Haiti, Ivory Coast and Somalia as “special cases,” due to living conditions that impede a government’s ability to fight trafficking.