Human Trafficking Is ‘Serious’ in U.S., State Department Says

The trafficking of men, women and children for labor and commercial sex is a “serious” problem in the U.S., according to the State Department.

The department’s 10th annual report grades 175 nations on their efforts to fight this modern form of slavery. The U.S. is listed for the first time, placed among those countries that are doing best in general complying with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the American law against human trafficking.

Still, the report said the U.S. is a source as well as a transit and destination country for people forced into labor, debt bondage and prostitution. The work is predominantly in manufacturing, janitorial services, agriculture, hotel services, construction, nail salons, elder care, strip club dancing and domestic servitude, the U.S. said.

“The United States takes its first-ever ranking not as a reprieve but as a responsibility to strengthen global efforts against modern slavery, including those within America,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement issued with the report today.

The International Labor Organization estimated there were 12.3 million victims of forced labor, sex trafficking, debt bondage and recruitment of child soldiers worldwide in 2009.

The U.S. report lists three tiers of nations. Among those in the bottom tier -- nations that don’t comply with the law and make no effort to do so -- are Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Mauritania and Sudan.

Japan, Israel and Oman are listed in the middle tier -- nations that don’t meet the law’s minimum standards yet are making “significant” efforts to do so. Oil-rich Qatar is listed in between the middle and lowest tier on a watch-list of countries that don’t meet minimum standards and whose progress is less certain.