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               Over 45 Million People Globally are Modern Slaves

   by VOA News

   Over forty-five million people are subject to some form of modern
   slavery, according to a report released by the [1]Global Slavery Index
   on Tuesday.

   India and Uzbekistan are among the countries with both the highest
   absolute number of slaves and the highest proportion of slaves to their
   population. Citizens of Uzbekistan are subject to state-sanctioned
   forced labor picking cotton.

   North Korea also makes the list for highest proportion of slaves among
   the population for forced labor in prisons as well as commercial sexual
   exploitation and forced marriage of women in neighboring states.

   More wealthy countries generally have lower rates -- the top 12
   countries with lowest rates of slavery are Western European, the U.S.
   and Canada, and Australia and New Zealand. However, the study did
   control for GDP, revealing that Qatar, Singapore, Kuwait, Brunei, Hong
   Kong, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Japan, and South Korea are among the
   nations whose governments having taken relatively little action against
   modern slavery despite adequate wealth and stability.

   The study assessed factors such as "protection and respect for rights,
   physical safety and security, access to the necessities of life such as
   food, water and health care, and patterns of migration, displacement
   and conflict" to reach their conclusions.

   One hundred and sixty-seven countries were included in the study.
   Ratings for Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen were
   not included due to ongoing conflicts.
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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/over-45-million-people-globally-aremo
   dern-slaves/3355139.html

References

   1. http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/over-45-million-people-globally-aremodern-slaves/3355139.html