Some of the world's poorest people in Africa and Asia are hardest hit by public corruption -- forced to pay bribes for police protection, education and justice -- according to a survey released on Thursday.
Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International's 2007 Global Corruption Barometer showed that as a region, Africa suffered the most public corruption. In the African countries surveyed, 42 percent of people reported that they had been asked to pay a bribe to obtain a service during the past 12 months.
The Asia Pacific region was next with 22 percent; then a grouping of Russia, Moldova and Ukraine with 21 percent; Latin America with 13 percent; Southeast Europe with 12 percent; the European Union with 5 percent; and North America with 2 percent. Taiwan was not included in this year's poll.
"Poor families are hit hardest by demands for bribes," the organization said in a summary of its report.
"This year's Global Corruption Barometer has made it clear that too often, people must part with their hard-earned money to pay for services that should be free," organization chairman Huguette Labelle said in a statement.
The survey of more than 63,199 people in 60 countries, compiled by polling agency Gallup, found that a majority believe corruption in general is on the rise and they consider politics the most graft-ridden sector.
Some 54 percent said they expected the level of corruption to increase in the next three years, 26 percent said it would stay the same, while 20 percent said it would decrease.
Of the countries and territories where interviews were carried out, Cameroon fared the worst, with 79 percent of respondents saying they had paid a bribe to obtain services. They were followed by 72 percent of Cambodians, 71 percent of Albanians, and 67 percent from Kosovo; both Macedonia and Pakistan registered 44 percent.
Canada, Japan, South Korea, Austria, France, Iceland, Sweden and Switzerland fared the best with only 1 percent of the people surveyed saying that they had paid a bribe.
The US, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Britain did only slightly worse with 2 percent.
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