David Bishop

Opinion | Why is Hong Kong rewarding employment agencies when the industry is complicit in human trafficking?

The government has endorsed a subsidy scheme for employment agencies hit by Covid-19. Yet the scheme does not acknowledge that a large subset of the industry has been criticised for facilitating labour trafficking through debt-based coercion

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A domestic helper, the victim of human trafficking, at St John’s Cathedral in Central in 2017. Photo: David Wong

David Bishop

Published: 2:30pm, 5 Jul 2020Updated: 7:40pm, 5 Jul 2020

What should a government do when it is called out for complicity in relation to human trafficking and modern slavery? For the Hong Kong government, its response is to blindly divert money to the very industry that is the largest facilitator of these crimes.

The Hong Kong government recently endorsed a subsidy scheme for employment agencies, which will give up to HK$117.28 million (US$15.3 million) to the employment agency industry. The scheme was approved by the Anti-epidemic Fund Steering Committee based on requests from the industry claiming businesses were adversely affected by Covid-19.

While it is true the employment agency industry has been severely hit by the pandemic, the scheme does not acknowledge that a large subset of that industry has been criticised for facilitating labour trafficking through debt-based coercion. That is one of the key reasons Hong Kong has again been downgraded to a Tier 2 Watch List in the US government’s recent Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.

Under the scheme, agencies will receive a one-off lump sum subsidy, with employment agencies that provide domestic worker placement services receiving HK$50,000 for each main licence. The only eligibility requirement for these payments is that agencies must hold a valid licence as of May 31.

The Labour Department is not considering factors such as complaints, convictions or even economic activity when authorising the payouts. This is remarkable, especially given that, out of the more than 1,400 domestic worker employment agencies in Hong Kong, hundreds are not economically active.

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It is a known agency strategy for owners to hold multiple licences in case they lose a licence for unethical or illegal business practices. For example, in 2019, one address has 17 employment agencies registered there. If that is still the case, this could collectively net a payout of HK$850,000.