Hong Kong edged up slightly in this year’s US State Department Trafficking in Persons report, graduating from “Tier 2 Watch List” to simply “Tier 2” on the back of increased efforts to fight trafficking.
The 2019 State Department report, released yesterday, cites expanding victim identification measures available to police, investigating more labor trafficking cases, unveiling an hotline for foreign domestic workers, and taking steps to implement an anti-trafficking action plan devised last year.
However, it noted, the government continued to fail to “meet the minimum standards in several key areas.”
“The government did not adequately investigate trafficking crimes, convict any labor traffickers, make sufficient efforts to ensure the safe repatriation of victims to their home countries, enact legislation to fully criminalize all forms of trafficking, or consistently refer victims to services,” the report reads.
“Officials continued to penalize trafficking victims for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit and did not vigorously penalize unscrupulous employment agencies and money lenders that facilitated debt bondage.”
Hong Kong’s Tier 2 ranking indicates that while it does not fully meet minimum standards, it is “making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance.”
One of the chief issues, the report notes, is the lack of a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, which forces prosecutors to resort to other parts of the legal code — such as laws controlling prosecution and labor offenses — when pursuing trafficking cases. Hong Kong’s current law forbidding trafficking people into and out of the territory is inconsistent with international norms, it adds.
The report notes that domestic workers are at especial risk of exploitative practices, with many falling into debt bondage in the very homes where they are employed. Others are promised work in Hong Kong, but upon arriving are coerced into going to work elsewhere, including on the mainland.
In a response issued late last night, the Hong Kong government took umbrage with the State Department’s findings, saying some elements were “not entirely fair or well founded.”
“Trafficking in Persons (TIP) has never been a prevalent problem in Hong Kong,” it states.
Somewhat contradictorily, however, it immediately adds that “the HKSAR Government has all along been combating TIP in an all-out and highly proactive manner.”
Regarding the lack of a comprehensive law, it adds, “Our multi-legislation approach targeting TIP has served Hong Kong well. It is thus unfair for some critics to maintain the view that the HKSAR Government lacks the determination in tackling TIP simply because there is no composite TIP law.”
