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Globalization and the demand for cheap labor have helped force at least 12.3 million people into slave-like work worldwide and create a multi-billion-dollar human trafficking industry, a U.N. agency said on Wednesday.

The United Nations' International Labour Organization (ILO) said the vast majority of them were in Asia and Latin America, many working in agriculture or imprisoned in camps.

Children are the hardest hit, comprising 40-50 percent of those in forced labor, it said in a report.

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Extreme price pressures on producers that have accompanied economic globalization have led some contractors to employ forced labor to supply western companies, the ILO said.

"We have identified sectors where there is cause for concern that forced labor can be penetrating the supply chain of private companies, including quite major companies," said Roger Plant, director of the ILO anti-forced labor program.

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