Ima Matul came to the United States in 1997, when she was 17 years old, she told CNN. She thought she would be working as a housekeeper for the cousin of her former employer in Indonesia, but when she arrived her passport was taken: 
 
 As soon as she passed through customs, the woman who she'd be "working" for confiscated her passport. At the tony house of her employer just outside Beverly Hills, the $150 a month she'd been promised never materialized....She did not get her one day off a week... [her captor] "was threatening me, saying that if I ran away, the police would arrest me because I didn't have my passport, and that I'd be thrown in jail where I'd be raped," said Matul. 
 
 Matul’s story isn’t unique. An estimated 35.8 million people around the world are modern day slaves, according to the 2014 Global Slavery Index, a report by the Australia-based NGO the Walk Free Foundation (WFF). 
 
 The ranking is based on the percent of the population estimated to be enslaved and the actions the government is taking to end modern slavery. Mauritania and Uzbekistan top the list with 4 and 3.9 percent of their population in slavery. But in absolute numbers, India leads, with an estimated 14 million people enslaved. 
 
 Slaves can be found in every one of the 167 countries the index ranked, including the United States. About 60 thousand people are trapped in slavery in "the land of the free." 
 
 Modern-day slavery includes people who are forced to work, owned or controlled by an "employer," bought and sold as "property," and those physically constrained or unable to move freely, according to Antislavery.org. Forced prostitution is a big part of modern-day slavery, but human trafficking also includes domestic workers, restaurant workers and traveling sales crews, reports Steve Hargreaves for CNN.com. Foreign workers are especially vulnerable because they fear deportation. One example: the 500 Indian men working as welders and pipe-fitters in Texas and Mississippi for the marine construction company Signal International, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. 
 
 “The first step in eradicating slavery is to measure it," the WFF’s founder, Andrew Forrest, told Larry Elliott for the Guardian. "And with that critical information, we must all come together – governments, businesses and civil society – to finally bring an end to the most severe form of exploitation.” The index’s report gives the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States, Australia and Switzerland the best ranking in terms of government response. Only the U.S., Australia and Brazil have taken steps to keep forced and slave labor out of their supply chains and those of businesses. 
 
 The report says victim assistance is a weakness for most countries. "Most countries either only provide short term assistance, neglecting long-term reintegration, or provide support solely for female or child victims," they write. 
 
 CNN’s Freedom Project highlights how individuals can help eradicate modern day slavery. The site has a list of global hotlines to report cases of human trafficking, a list of charities by country and organizations that work globally. 
 
 Ima Matul was eventually able escape. She passed a note to the neighbors’ nanny, who was able to arrange for her transportation for a shelter run by the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking. The people that kept her were never prosecuted because the case was difficult to prove, CNN reports. But Matul has since gotten her GED and is married with three kids. She now works at the coalition as a Survivor Organizer. ||||| The report, by the Global Slavery Index, also estimates most victims live in Asia, with North Korea the highest globally 
 
 More than 400,000 people could be living in “modern slavery” in the US, a condition of servitude broadly defined in a new study as forced and state-imposed labor, sexual servitude and forced marriage. 
 
 What I learned from sex slavery survivors? Hope isn't easily crushed | Penny Jaye Read more 
 
 The Global Slavery Index, published on Thursday by Walk Free Foundation, describes modern slavery as a complex and often hidden crime that crosses borders, sectors and jurisdictions. The US number, the study estimates, is almost one hundredth of the estimated 40.3 million global total number of people it defines as being enslaved. 
 
 “The United States is one of the most advanced countries in the world yet has more than 400,000 modern slaves working under forced labor conditions,” said the group’s founder, Andrew Forrest, in a news release. 
 
 “This is a truly staggering statistic and demonstrates just how substantial this issue is globally. This is only possible through a tolerance of exploitation,” Forrest added. 
 
 The report estimates most victims of modern slavery live in Asia. North Korea has the highest prevalence of modern slavery globally, with one in 10 of the population, or 2.6 million people, victims of modern slavery. 
 
 A third, or 15 million, of victims of modern slavery enter through forced marriage, an issue that disproportionately affects women and girls. “Overall, the cultural practice of forced marriage places women at greater risk of exploitation, and the potential subjection to a life of servitude, financial bondage and sexual exploitation that comes with modern slavery,” the report said. 
 
 The report also argues the US figures are in themselves deceptive because the US exacerbates the global slavery problem by importing products, including laptops, computers, mobile phones, garments, fish, cocoa and timber, at risk of being produced through forced labor. 
 
 The group recommends making forced marriage illegal, creating a minimum marriage age of 18, a national database of trafficking and forced labor cases, and working to improve supply-chain transparency to help bring the US numbers down. 
 
 It estimates China is by far the largest source of at-risk goods, with the United States importing $122bn of electronics and clothing from the country. Vietnam was the second largest source with $11.2bn, and India third with $3.8bn. 
 
 Smaller values of goods were also sourced from Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Russia, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Peru. 
 
 “There is no quick solution to this and governments, businesses, and consumers alike must wake up to the fact that they must change their behavior if they wish to tackle this abhorrent issue, both at home and abroad,” Forrest wrote. 
 
 Walk Free’s methodology includes extrapolation using national surveys, databases of information of those who were assisted in trafficking cases, and reports from other agencies like the UN’s International Labour Organization. 
 
 But other anti-exploitation groups offer caution over Walk Free’s definition of slavery and the methodology it uses in calculating the numbers of people affected. 
 
 US criticises Ireland for insufficient action on modern slavery Read more 
 
 In a recent essay, What’s Wrong with the Global Slavery Index?, published in the Anti-Trafficking Review, the author, Anne Gallagher, argued that the term “modern slavery” seeks to encompass under its expansive umbrella a raft of exploitative practices and a myriad of victims. 
 
 “We don’t yet have universally accepted diagnostic criteria or credible tools of measurement – which means that universal, reliable calculation of the size of the problem, while an important goal to strive for, is not yet possible,” she wrote. ||||| LONDON (AP) — Modern slavery is most prevalent in North Korea and other repressive regimes, but developed nations also bear responsibility for it because they import $350 billion worth of goods that are produced under suspicious circumstances, according to research released Thursday. 
 
 The Global Slavery Index estimates 40.3 million people worldwide were subjected to modern slavery in 2016, with the highest concentration in North Korea, where one in 10 people lived under such conditions. 
 
 "This index makes us visible," North Korean defector Yeon-mi Park, who escaped to China where she was trafficked and forced into marriage, said at a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York. 
 
 "Over 40 million people ... they are not numbers. It could be anyone. It was me. It was my mother. It was my sister," she said. "Even now, there are 300,000 North Korean defectors in China, and 90 percent of them are being trafficked. They are being sold by Chinese men for a few hundred dollars." 
 
 Park, who is now studying at Colombia University in New York, urged people everywhere to help the millions of victims of modern slavery. 
 
 "These people simply were born in the wrong place, and that's why they're being punished for — their birthplace," said Park, who has founded a group help North Korean trafficking victims. 
 
 The report was compiled by the Walk Free Foundation, an anti-slavery campaign founded by Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest, who said at the New York press conference that "for the first time there is real hope we can end modern slavery." 
 
 The goal of the index is to pressure governments and companies to do more to end modern slavery by providing hard data on the numbers of people involved and the impact it has around the world. For example, modern slavery in developing nations puts jobs at risk in the U.S. and Western Europe because domestic goods compete against imports produced through "exploitation of the worst kind," Forrest told The Associated Press. 
 
 "By unraveling the trade flows and focusing on products at risk of modern slavery that are imported by the top economies, it becomes clear that even the wealthiest countries have a clear and immediate responsibility for responding to modern slavery both domestically and beyond their borders," the report said. "Developed economies are exposed to the risk of modern slavery not only when this crime is perpetrated within their national borders, but also when that risk is effectively transferred to them via the products they import." 
 
 Modern slavery involves the use of threats, violence and deception to take away people's ability to control their own bodies, to refuse certain kinds of work or to stop working altogether. 
 
 The report cites coal, cocoa, cotton, timber and fish as among the products that may be tainted by modern slavery. 
 
 In North Korea, coal exports are the area of greatest concern. 
 
 The index lists Eritrea, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Mauritania, South Sudan, Pakistan, Cambodia and Iran as the worst offenders after North Korea. 
 
 Repressive regimes are of particular concern because their "populations are put to work to prop up the government," according to the report. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report. ||||| Five countries including India, China and Russia account for 61% of all slavery, says Australia-based Walk Free Foundation 
 
 More than 35 million people around the world are trapped in a modern form of slavery, according to a report highlighting the prevalence of forced labour, human trafficking, forced marriages, debt bondage and commerical sexual exploitation. 
 
 The Walk Free Foundation (WFF), an Australia-based NGO that publishes the annual global slavery index, said that as a result of better data and improved methodology it had increased its estimate 23% in the past year. 
 
 Five countries accounted for 61% of slavery, although it was found in all 167 countries covered by the report, including the UK. 
 
 India was top of the list with about 14.29 million enslaved people, followed by China with 3.24 million, Pakistan 2.06 million, Uzbekistan 1.2 million, and Russia 1.05 million. 
 
 Mauritania had the highest proportion of its population in modern slavery, at 4%, followed by Uzbekistan with 3.97%, Haiti 2.3%, Qatar 1.36% and India 1.14%. 
 
 Andrew Forrest, the chairman and founder of WFF – which is campaigning for the end of slavery within a generation – said: “There is an assumption that slavery is an issue from a bygone era. Or that it only exists in countries ravaged by war and poverty. 
 
 “These findings show that modern slavery exists in every country. We are all responsible for the most appalling situations where modern slavery exists and the desperate misery it brings upon our fellow human beings. 
 
 “The first step in eradicating slavery is to measure it. And with that critical information, we must all come together – governments, businesses and civil society – to finally bring an end to the most severe form of exploitation.” 
 
 Countries identified as leading the fight to end modern slavery include Australia, Austria, Georgia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the US. Only Australia, Brazil and the US, however, were making efforts to address the issue in government procurement and the supply chains of businesses operating in there. 
 
 Modern slavery is a live political issue in the UK, with a bill on the issue moving through parliament and David Cameron highlighting it in his speech to the Conservative party conference this year. 
 
 “But there’s still more injustice when it comes to work, and it’s even more shocking. Criminal gangs trafficking people halfway around the world and making them work in the most disgusting conditions,” Cameron said. 
 
 “I’ve been to see these houses on terraced streets built for families of four, cramming in 15 people like animals. To those crime lords who think they can get away with it, I say ‘no, not in this country, not with this party’ … With our modern slavery bill we’re coming after you and we’re going to put a stop to it once and for all.” 
 
 Olly Buston, WFF’s movement director, said: “There is still a chance that the modern slavery bill will make Britain’s anti-slavery laws the best in the world. But the draft bill must be strengthened. Children and other victims of slavery need to be properly protected. And the bill must ensure that businesses take action to end slavery in their supply chains”.
– A new survey on modern slavery around the world pegs the number of people in the US who fall into that category at about 400,000, reports the Guardian. The new Global Slavery Index also puts the number worldwide at 40.3 million and rising. While modern slaves in the US make up just a fraction of that figure, the group behind the survey—the Walk Free Foundation—says America plays a deeper role in the problem as the biggest importer of goods produced by suspected slave labor. The 2016 estimate was $144 billion worth of such goods. Other report highlights: Worst offenders: North Korea has the highest concentration of modern slaves, who account for 1 in 10 of the population, or 2.6 million people, reports CNN. Then comes Eritrea, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Mauritania, South Sudan, Pakistan, Cambodia, and Iran. Women hit hardest: The vast majority of modern slaves, 71%, are women, reports Axios. The usual route is through forced marriages. Solutions: The foundation calls for outlawing forced marriages, setting a minimum marriage age of 18, setting up a database of human trafficking cases, and bringing greater transparency to the world's supply chain. One victim: "Over 40 million people ... they are not numbers," says North Korean defector Yeon-mi Park, who escaped to China only to be forced into a marriage, per the AP. "It could be anyone. It was me. It was my mother. It was my sister. Even now, there are 300,000 North Korean defectors in China, and 90% of them are being trafficked. They are being sold by Chinese men for a few hundred dollars."