FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gives a news conference about dealings with China and Iran, and on the fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Washington, U.S., June 24, 2020. Mangel Ngan/Pool via REUTERS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The novel coronavirus pandemic had made more people vulnerable to human trafficking, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday as an annual U.S. report added Afghanistan and Nicaragua to a list of worst offenders while Saudi Arabia was upgraded.
"Instability and lack of access to critical services caused by the pandemic mean that the number of people vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers is rapidly growing," Pompeo said in the annual U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons report.
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