If you think the US Civil War ended the scourge of slavery on earth, you obviously have not been paying attention to the news. In 2003, Anti-Slavery International, founded in 1839 as the first international human rights organization, reported that “Millions of men, women and children around the world are forced to lead lives as slaves . . . People are sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay, and are at the mercy of their employers.”

Slavery is most often associated with the African continent, where it does in fact remain a significant problem, and because of the association with the Atlantic slave trade during the 17th and 18th centuries. Modern-day slavery, however, is a problem all over the world, and a number of countries that people might not think of as having this problem, do, in fact have it.

In addition to what one might think of as traditional slavery, human trafficking, in which victims are forced, defrauded or coerced into sexual or labor exploitation is a modern form of slavery. Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal activities, with 600,000 to 800,000 people annually trafficked across borders worldwide. Each year, as many as 17,500 persons, mostly women and children, are trafficked into the United States, sometimes through physical force, sometimes through false promises about jobs or marriage, where they are then entrapped into prostitution, pornography, or other forms of sexual exploitation, or harsh conditions in factories, fields, and even private homes.

There are cases of large-scale exploitation of slaves as well as situations that are close to slavery. It is estimated, for instance that slavery is still practiced on a large scale in Sudan (now, Sudan and South Sudan) with an estimated 14,000 people abducted and forced into bondage since 1983. Nearly seven percent, or approximately 870,000 people in Niger are thought to live in involuntary servitude; many are born into slavery and are expected to remain slaves for life. In the United Arab Emirates, boys between the ages of four and ten are often trafficked from Southeast Asia where they are put to work in homes and factories, and in India, Nepal, and Pakistan, millions of people are used as forced or bonded labor.

While large-scale slavery is reported mainly in African countries, situations of near-slavery seem to be centered in countries with large Hindu or Muslim majorities, according the to the group, Anti-Slavery International. These countries, however, are not alone in facing the problem of exploitation of people. While slave labor might originate in under-developed countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East; and most who are held in traditional bondage remain there; those who are trafficked for commercial sex or labor exploitation often end up in industrialized countries, such as the United States, Britain, or the richer countries of Europe. In addition, exploited laborers working under conditions of slavery in places like the cocoa plantations of Cote d’Ivoire are forced to produce the chocolate that pampered people in the West eat; unaware that it is the result of slave labor.

In short, if one were asked to name the countries in which slavery is still an issue, it would have to be answered – every country in the world.