Hong Kong has been downgraded to a “watch list” over its response to human trafficking, with the US government saying that security laws enacted in the city in 2020 and in March had restricted the ability of NGOs to engage with officials to combat trafficking.
The “2024 Trafficking in Persons Report: Hong Kong,” which was released by the US Department of State on Monday, prompted swift objections from the city’s government in a lengthy statement issued in the early hours of Tuesday.
“We vehemently oppose and firmly reject the unfounded and false remarks in the Report against the situation in Hong Kong. Trafficking in persons (TIP) is never a prevalent problem in Hong Kong,” a government spokesperson said in the statement. “The findings in the Report are groundless. The rating of Hong Kong at Tier 2 (Watch List) is utterly unfair, misconceived, and not substantiated by facts.”
See also: Hong Kong falls short of US standards on tackling human trafficking
The report noted that the Hong Kong government “continued to publicly deny trafficking was a prevalent crime in Hong Kong, despite ongoing anti-trafficking efforts of government officials and NGOs.”
It pointed to a governmental anti-trafficking steering committee led by the chief secretary for administration and an inter-departmental working group led by the Security Bureau. Additionally, the report highlighted that HK$77 million was allocated to the continuing implementation of a 2018 anti-trafficking action plan in the city’s 2024-25 budget, up from HK$62 million in the previous fiscal year.
However, since the enactment of a Beijing-imposed national security law in June 2020, which criminalised secession, subversion, foreign collusion and terrorism, the report said “NGOs and other civil society organizations reported they were more cautious in their engagement with the government, including on human trafficking.”
It continued: “Similarly, after the March 23, 2024 enactment of theSafeguarding National Security Ordinance under Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law, civil society organizations started to report similar restrictions.”
In response, the government spokesperson said that both security laws “clearly stipulate that human rights shall be respected and protected in safeguarding national security.”
More screenings, fewer victims
Among the improvements Hong Kong was seen to have made was an increase in screenings of vulnerable populations, from 7,576 in 2022 to 10,989 in 2023. However, those screenings identified just three victims last year, compared to 31 victims of labour trafficking and one victim of sex trafficking in 2022.
According to the report, “the government did not provide services to any victims.”
The government spokesperson said that the identification of only three victims “demonstrates that TIP is not a prevalent or widespread issue in Hong Kong. It is baseless and unfair to cast doubt on our determination in combatting TIP and the quality of our screenings merely because of the low number of the victims so identified.”
The implementation of the screening mechanism was called “ineffective and inconsistent” in the report, noting that no victims from vulnerable populations, such as migrant domestic workers, were identified. Furthermore, it said that those involved in the screening process “lacked understanding of psychological trauma associated with trafficking.”
“NGOs reported law enforcement made efforts to improve its interviewing procedures and provide breaks and basic amenities to potential victims, but law enforcement often did not use a trauma-informed approach while interviewing potential victims during the identification process, which exacerbated victims’ emotional distress,” the report read.
Hong Kong authorities were also called out for a lack of convictions of traffickers, instead possibly penalising “trafficking victims through arrest and deportation for immigration, narcotics, and commercial sex offences committed as a direct result of being trafficked.”
Migrant domestic workers ‘at high risk’
The report described migrant domestic workers as “at high risk of trafficking,” adding that there were insufficient safeguards in place to protect them.
The government, meanwhile, said it “consistently attaches great importance to protecting [migrant domestic workers] in Hong Kong, the population of which is some 360 000.”
Among the recommendations included in the report were several measures that domestic workers’ rights advocates have spent decades lobbying for: “Increase protections for foreign domestic workers, including by prohibiting worker-charged recruitment fees, permanently eliminating the ‘two-week rule’ affording workers an option to live outside their place of employment, and creating legal maximum working hours.”
According to the government spokesperson, the two-week rule “aims to allow sufficient time for [migrant domestic workers] to prepare for their departure,” adding that it did not preclude domestic workers from returning to Hong Kong to work.
“Exploitation of [migrant domestic workers] is never tolerated in Hong Kong,” the spokesperson continued, adding that any migrant domestic workers who have been “abused or exploited should not feel inhibited from lodging complaints against their employers.”
There have been a number of high-profile cases of domestic workers being abused by their employers in Hong Kong, with some – such as the case involving Erwiana – making headlines internationally. Excessive agency fees also remain prevalent according to unions, with Indonesian domestic workers among the most preyed upon.
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