Dominican Today, CNN, Tech2, and other news outlets have been reporting about the results published in the Global Slavery Index 2018, which finds that the number of slaves in developed nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands, is much higher than previously thought. For example, one in every 800 people in the United States is working under forced labor conditions, according to the new data revealed. North Korea has the highest prevalence in the world. In Latin America, Venezuela, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic are the three countries with a greater problem of modern slavery.

As Dominican Today quotes, the Global Slavery Index 2018 estimates that some 174,000 people are in that situation in Venezuelan territory, a rate of 5.6 per 1,000 inhabitants. The proportion is similar to Haiti’s, where some 59,000 people would be victims, and sharply above other countries in the region.

After Venezuela and Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Honduras are the countries of the Americas with a major modern slavery problem. Mexico’s estimated 341,000 victims (2.7 per 1,000) make it the highest in absolute figures, says Walk Free.

In total, the organization estimates that in 2016 nearly two million people in the Americas were in a situation of slavery, being forced to work under various types of difficult conditions. Just over a third are considered to be trapped by debts, according to the authors of the report.

For original articles, see https://dominicantoday.com/dr/poverty/2018/07/19/dominican-republic-3rd-with-modern-slavery-in-the-americas-efe/, https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/methodology/prevalence/, https://tech2.org/cuba/north-korea-in-the-world-and-venezuela-in-latin-america-are-the-countries-with-the-largest-number-of-slaves-07-19-2018/, and https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/19/world/global-slavery-index-2018/index.html

[Photo above from https://dominicantoday.com/dr/poverty/2018/07/19/dominican-republic-3rd-with-modern-slavery-in-the-americas-efe/.]