CBNNews.com - This week, the State Department released its annual "Trafficking in Persons" report.
Officials say human trafficking affects every country, even the United States, and it's a problem everyone must try to fight.
Corruption, increased demand for labor, and the globalization of foreign economies are all factors of what the government calls modern-day slavery.
Victims of trafficking include forced labor workers, child soldiers, and millions of women and young children sold into prostitution.
Countries with the worst human trafficking include American allies in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait.
However, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised Georgia, Hungary, Slovenia, Israel, Taiwan, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Jamaica for making "major improvements."
Speaking at a news conference in Washington, D.C., Rice told reporters they would see "disturbing evidence in this report that prosecutions have levelled off everywhere."
"This cannot and must not be tolerated," Rice said.
"You can be involved in victim assistance effort," Director Mark Lagon, United States Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. "You can write your member of Congress to insist that this effort get the energy that it deserves. Twenty-eight people are following the United States, we've ...   more »