MANAMA , Bahrain ( CNN ) -- Suryavathi Rao entered her 40th year in what can be called no man 's land . A protestor locked in a suitcase reading `` Stop Human Trafficking '' in Germany last year . A domestic worker from India , she arrived at a shelter in the Gulf state of Bahrain one morning with only a nightgown , slippers , and a prayer for a better life . `` I had to leave because it was getting too difficult for me , '' she said . `` I have not brought any clothes , I have not brought personal belongings , all I brought with me is a Bible . '' Rao says her employer -- a family with eight children who sponsored her journey here -- did not pay her the monthly salary of just over $ 100 for six months . Having fled her employer 's home , she is now considered an illegal resident on the island . Marietta Dias , who runs the Migrant Workers Society , says the mind-set regarding immigrant workers here has got to change . Some employers treat their help as `` not a person but a machine ( that ) starts in the morning : Put on a switch ( and ) work consistently right through the day . Take care of the children , washing , cleaning , cooking , right down to cleaning ( the ) car . '' The exploitation of workers is a huge business worldwide . People forced to work without pay collectively lose more than $ 20 billion a year in earnings , according to a report from the United Nations International Labour Organization released Tuesday . Global profits from human trafficking and forced labor have reached $ 36 billion , according to the United Nations , and that sum is climbing . `` Forced labor is the antithesis of decent work , '' ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said in a statement as the report became public . `` It causes untold human suffering and steals from its victims . '' `` It is the vulnerable who suffer the most '' in times of economic crisis like the present , the report says . It took years for governments to acknowledge the problem . Now the biggest challenges , officials say , are the implementation and enforcement of laws . `` Eighty percent of forced labor is in the private economy , but this is very , very rarely been prosecuted , if at all in most countries , '' said Roger Plant , one of the authors of the ILO report . Part of the problem is that the law is often hazy . `` There 's a whole lot of gray areas where intermediate agents , sub-brokers , are taking advantage of loopholes in the law in order to extract large amounts of money from vulnerable people , uninformed ( people ) who are going off to work in a country where they do n't speak the language , '' Plant said . But for him , the bottom line is clear . `` There is some absolutely flagrant forced labor where the offenders must be put behind bars . Forced labor is a serious criminal offense and must be treated as such , '' he said . Labor markets need a regulatory overhaul like the one financial markets are now facing , he argued . `` Because labor markets are too deregulated there are too many options for people to act in an unethical way , '' he said . `` After the havoc in the financial markets , people are realizing they need some monitoring , licensing , regulation . You 've got to do the same on the labor markets , '' he said . The ILO tried to set standards for private agencies that place workers , he said . `` But we 're finding is that there is a number of totally unknown , unlicensed and unregulated labor workers at the bottom end of the market , and there is broker after broker , intermediate after intermediate getting cash -- getting some money from the worker , '' he said . `` Usually it is in the very much down the bottom in the informal sector , in the developing countries , but we are finding that sometimes this is pervading even larger recruitment agencies . '' Bahrain , where Suryavathi Rao fled her employer , is considered a reformer on labor issues . The Gulf state has introduced the Labour Market Regulatory Authority to register and track workers of all types . `` People were not familiar with the definition of human trafficking and most of the time they were n't accepting that is phenomena is actually here in our region , '' Abdulaziz bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa of the country 's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said . A top priority is to reduce the role of middlemen who take sizable fees -- sometimes a year 's salary plus interest , he said . But worldwide , prosecutions are comparatively rare , said Antonio Maria Costa , under secretary-general of the United Nations . `` Only a few thousand people were criminalized in the underworld in the past 2-3 years -- a fraction of the criminals who actually prey upon victims . '' The average , according to labor officials , is one prosecution for every 800 cases -- a rate that keeps workers like Suryavathi Rao , and millions more , vulnerable to exploitation .
Global profits from human trafficking , forced labor reach just over $ 100 , U.N. says . Eighty percent of forced labor is in private economy , says Bahrain Foreign Ministry report author . Bahrain has introduced U.N. to register workers . U.N. : Top priority is to reduce role of middlemen .