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Lo Hoi-ying

Hong Kong has slammed the United States’ move to downgrade the city’s ranking in its annual report on human trafficking, saying it was “utterly unfair, misconceived and not substantiated by facts”.
In a statement published early on Tuesday, the government said the Trafficking in Persons Report by the US State Department put Hong Kong on a watch list for being unable to show that it had improved its anti-trafficking efforts.
“Trafficking in persons (TIP) has never been a prevalent problem in Hong Kong,” a government spokesman said.
“There has never been any sign that Hong Kong is being actively used by syndicates as a destination or transit point for [human trafficking].”
In its list published on Monday local time, the State Department downgraded Hong Kong from Tier 2 last year to Tier 2 Watch List.
“It did not convict any sex traffickers and did not convict any labour traffickers for the fifth consecutive year. Victim identification efforts and services remained inadequate,” the report said.
“Despite the government screening thousands of vulnerable people for trafficking indicators, it identified only three victims, a decrease compared with the 32 identified during the previous reporting period.”
The report said foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong remained at high risk of trafficking and accused authorities of decreased efforts to protect victims.
It added that government policies requiring foreign domestic workers to live with employers, a lack of regulations concerning their work hours and demanding they leave Hong Kong within two weeks in the event their contract is terminated increased their vulnerability to exploitation by abusive bosses and unscrupulous employment agencies.
The report lists five tier rankings in descending order: Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watchlist, Tier 3 and Special Cases.
Residents in countries or regions listed under Tier 1 are the least likely to be trafficked to another place, while those listed under Special Cases are at highest risk.
The 31 other jurisdictions on the Tier 2 Watch List include Laos, Nepal, Zimbabwe and Uruguay.
Mainland China and Macau were listed in Tier 3, a rating that indicates no significant effort has been made to combat human trafficking.

While governments of Tier 2 countries do not fully meet the minimum standards stated in the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act, “significant efforts” have been made to bring themselves into compliance with the benchmark, according to the report.
Countries are downgraded to the Tier 2 Watch List if the estimated number of human trafficking victims is significant or if authorities are unable to show evidence they have increased their efforts to tackle the problem.
The city was upgraded to Tier 2 last year for its growing investigations and prosecutions of traffickers after being on the watch list for three consecutive years.
The government said it conducted about 11,000 initial screenings in 2023 of those vulnerable to trafficking, including illegal immigrants, sex workers, illegal workers, foreign domestic helpers and imported workers, marking a 45 per cent increase compared with 2022.
“Of note is that our heightened anti-trafficking efforts and increased number of screenings resulted in the identification of only three victims, which shows that [human trafficking] is not a prevalent or widespread issue in Hong Kong,” the spokesman said.
“It is baseless and unfair to cast doubt on our determination in combating [human trafficking] and the quality of our screenings merely because of the low number of the victims identified.”
The report also said local law did not criminalise all forms of human trafficking and that the government relied on various legal provisions relating to prostitution, immigration, employment and physical abuse to prosecute trafficking crimes.
“Law enforcement officials often did not adequately investigate trafficking cases and sometimes closed cases with clear indicators of trafficking,” it said.
In response, the government hit out at “unsubstantiated remarks” in the report about the lack of composite trafficking legislation in Hong Kong.
The spokesman said the legislative framework, which had more than 50 legal provisions targeting human trafficking, provided a “comprehensive package of safeguards” comparable with other jurisdictions.
“There is no indication to suggest that the effectiveness of our anti-TIP efforts has in any way been undermined without composite trafficking legislation,” he said.
Human rights lawyer Patricia Ho said Hong Kong’s lack of anti-human trafficking laws was among the reasons that the city had been placed on the watch list.
“It’s not a crime, and that’s a fundamental problem here,” she said. “Traffickers would be worried that it is a high level and serious crime elsewhere, but they have less fear of operating in Hong Kong.”
According to the US report, city authorities last year did not grant any victims, including exploited foreign domestic workers, immunity from prosecution in such cases, but did so for three victims in 2022.
Ho also said foreigners convicted of sex work or drug trafficking were usually prosecuted for breaching conditions of stay and deported, without authorities investigating whether they were potential human trafficking victims.
The lack of legislation had reduced the sense of severity surrounding the exploitation faced by foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong, she added.
The lawyer used the example of a live-in helper who was afraid to seek help from authorities despite being owed years worth of wages by an employer.
“The employer may be guilty of forced labour in the international realm, but in Hong Kong, all it is considered is unpaid wages. There’s a gulf of a difference there,” she said.


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Hong Kong hits out at ‘utterly unfair’, ‘misconceived’ US human trafficking report downgrade

Domestic helpers enjoy a day off at Victoria Park. A government spokesman says human trafficking has never been prevalent in Hong Kong. Photo: Sam Tsang

The government conducted about 11,000 initial screenings of those vulnerable to trafficking in 2023. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

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Stephen Roach, the former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, after delivering a speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Central. Photo: Kahon Chan

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The government has hit back at Hong Kong Watch for its ‘despicable’ efforts to intimidate city leaders. Photo: Hong Kong Watch

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News

Hong Kong

Authorities say US State Department placed city on Tier 2 Watch List for being unable to show efforts in combating trafficking


Authorities say US State Department placed city on Tier 2 Watch List for being unable to show efforts in combating trafficking.


Diplomacy