Hillary Adds U.S. to List of Slave Nations

Secretary of State Clinton included the U.S. for the first time on the State Department’s list of nations “trafficking in persons” for forced labor ranging from farm workers to pole dancers and prostitutes.

“There are Americans, unfortunately, who are held in slavery,” Clinton said in releasing the annual report on nations who promote or permit the international trade in human beings for profit.

The report said the main source countries for forced labor in the U.S. were Thailand, Mexico, the Philippines, Haiti and India.

“The obvious reality is that we, too, are a source country,” said Luis C. de Baca, ambassador-at-Large for trafficking in persons.

In the report, the U.S. was singled out as “source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor, debt bondage, and forced prostitution.”