The U.S. State Department says 17 countries are doing almost nothing to fight human trafficking and may be complicit in such crimes.

In its annual human trafficking report, the State Department calls those 17 nations countries of origin, transit, or destinations for such crimes as sex slavery, forced labor, and recruiting child soldiers.

At a ceremony announcing the report, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she prefers to use the term “modern slavery” instead of trafficking. She said the word slavery makes no mistake about what it means and what it does.

Clinton said 27 million people around the world are victims of modern slavery. She said the job of those who combat the crime is to put the hopes and dreams of those victims back within reach.

Under U.S. law, countries that fail to effectively combat human trafficking face numerous possible sanctions, including a cut-off of all non-humanitarian aid. The United States may also oppose financial help from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

The 17 countries the State Department calls the worst human trafficking offenders are Algeria, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Kuwait, Libya, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Suriname, Syria, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

The report says a number of other countries do not fully comply with U.S. law, but are making significant efforts to comply.