The article analyses the problem of contemporary slavery in the region that has changed its historic forms but remains to be the exploitative forced labour applied to victims of trafficking in persons. Taking into consideration that one third of the global human trafficking accounts for South-East Asia, this problem exceeds the limits of national states and gains international nature. This was reflected in publications of the US State Department investigations conducted by human rights non-governmental organizations and mass media with the purpose to attract attention of the states of the region to its solution. However, in the opinion of the author there is good reason to believe that this problem would not be resolved soon.