WASHINGTON, June 5: The United States said on Wednesday that up to four million people have been bought and sold in the 21st century slave trade in the last year, and accused 19 countries of doing to little to stamp it out.

In its annual “Trafficking in Persons” report, the State Department added Afghanistan, Armenia, Cambodia, Tajikistan, Iran and the Kyrghyz Republic, to a blacklist of states it blames for making insufficient efforts to combat the scourge, which also includes Russia and Saudi Arabia.

“Over the last year, at least 700,000 and possibly as many as four million men, women and children were bought, sold, transported and held against their will in slave like conditions,” the report said.

“In this modern form of slavery, known as ‘trafficking in persons’ traffickers use threats, intimidation and violence to force victims to engage in sex acts or to labour under conditions comparable to slavery.”

The report, which includes input from various US government agencies and embassies overseas, said that people are trafficked to supply the international sex trade in prostitution, sex tourism and commercial sex services.

Others find themselves working in appalling conditions for low pay in sweatshops, construction or agriculture.

Most of the countries deemed as not doing enough to combat trafficking are in east and central Asia, southern and eastern Europe and the Middle East.

On the basis of the report, governments in Africa and South America seem to be taking the problem seriously.

The report groups countries in three tiers based on the government’s efforts to combat trafficking, as defined by the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act 2000.

The law defines trafficking as an offence in which a person is forced, coerced or transported to commit a sex act, or to indulge in forced labour or provision of services.

States in tier three are deemed to be in violation of the Act’s minimum standards and not making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance.

In this report, they are : Afghanistan, Armenia, Bahrain, Belarus, Bosnia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Greece, Indonesia, Iran, Kyrghyz Republic, Lebanon, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Several countries placed in tier three last year, have moved up, including South Korea, which the report said had made “extraordinary strides” to combat trafficking over the last year and is now in tier one.

Romania, Israel, Albania, Gabon, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Pakistan and Yugoslavia moved up from tier-three to tier-two, which reflects a judgment that their governments do not fully comply with the Act but is trying to do so, the report said.

States and territories in tier one are deemed to fully comply with the Act’s standards, and this year include, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, South Korea and Colombia.

Governments were assessed on whether they vigorously investigate acts of trafficking, protect victims, and adopt measures to prevent trafficking and cooperate with other countries to cut down on the trade in humans.

They are also held up for scrutiny on the extent to which they extradite traffickers, monitor immigration patterns for evidence of trafficking and prosecute public officials caught in the trafficking trade.—AFP