A/HRC/7/7 page 16 were pressured to continue to fulfil their work duties even with the help of crutches. If injured or killed, the claims presented by these private security guards or their families are often denied, or they find difficulties to obtain health care or compensation. A number of Peruvians injured in Iraq, for example, are still waiting for the compensation they had been promised.46 41. In Iraq, PMSCs appears to have filled a gap,47 particularly because of the reluctance of contributing sufficient regular troops, and because engaging “private guards” has less political consequences and offer States considerable political distance.48 This army of private security guards constitutes the second largest force in Iraq after that of the United States Army. In order to maximize profit PMSC and their affiliates have stimulated the demand of former military personnel and ex-policemen of developing countries by advertising attractive salaries for jobs in zones of armed conflict such as Iraq. This demand has been easily fuelled in countries with unemployment and/or underemployment, a migratory population ready to perform security work abroad, and largely unmonitored activities of private security companies. The majority of third-country nationals have accepted jobs as “private security guards” for socio-economic reasons such as unemployment, debts or to provide a better education to their children, and other opportunities. 42. In Iraq, the casualties among private security guards constitute also the largest number after that of the United States Army. As of August 2007, over 1,000 private contractors would have died since 2003, according to figures of the United States Department of Labor, and more than 12,000 injured.49 Added to the military toll, the human cost (over 3,670 deaths and some 30,000 injured) of the United States war effort would be nearly 25 per cent higher.50 Among 414 private security guards’ casualties51 there were the deaths of citizens from the 46 BBC, ‘‘Peru’s war zone workers”, http://www.bbc.co.uk/. R. Brooks, “Deniable, disposable casualties”, Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2007. 47 Some 160,000 in mid-2007. According to the testimony of General B.R. McCaffrey before the House Armed Services Committee the Government has been “forced to use US and foreign contractors to substitute for required military functions”, Earthtimes.org, 31 July 2007. 48 The Economist, London: 10 April 2004, vol. 371, Iss. 8370, p. 38. 49 US Labor Department figures are based on compensation claims filed by the individual contracted or family members of those killed or incapacitated. 50 US Department of Labor; D. Ivanovitch, “Information incomplete on contractors in Iraq”, Houston Chronicle, 8 August 2007; H. Witt, “770 civilian contractors among America’s hidden dead”, Chicago Tribune. The number given by the Brooking Institute for the same period is of 470 casualties. 51 Also victims of the collateral damages of the conflict are truck drivers and many labourers from countries such as India, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka who have also been deceptively recruited and trafficked to Iraq. See the article by W. Branigin, Washington Post, 27 July 2007.