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Over 50,000 people forced to enter US for work

NEW YORK: As many as 50,000 women and children are brought to the United States and forced to work as prostitutes, abused labourers or servants, according to a US Central Intelligence Agency report, the New York Times said on Sunday.

The report, completed in November, said the women and children are brought from Asia, Latin America and eastern Europe in a disturbing new form of slavery that law enforcement officers have difficulty combating, the report said.

Such slavery cases are difficult to investigate and hard to prosecute, the report said, because US laws do not directly address the problem. That means even once convicted, people who hold the unwilling immigrants in bondage receive only light penalties.

While the report says more than 100,000 victims were brought in bondage into the United States over the last two years, federal officials estimate only 250 of those cases were prosecuted, the report said.

The 79-page report is the government's first comprehensive assessment of the problem, the Times said. The report draws on interviews with more than 150 government officials, law enforcement officers, victims and experts. AFP