Government Plays Down Better US Trafficking Report

The US on Thursday lifted Hong Kong out of the Tier 2 Watch List category to Tier 2 in its annual Trafficking in Persons report. This means, although the SAR still fails to meet minimum US standards for the elimination of trafficking, it was making significant efforts to do so.

The SAR government, though, insists people trafficking has never been a major problem here.

The US State Department report praised the SAR government for setting up a hotline for foreign domestic helpers, increasing training for officials and allocating funding for an anti-trafficking plan. It also welcomed progress on victim identification and the establishment of anti-trafficking police units.

But it said sufficient efforts hadn't been made to ensure the safe repatriation of victims and no labour traffickers had been convicted. The report called for legislation against all forms of trafficking and for the SAR to stop penalising victims for unlawful acts, it said, traffickers had made them commit.

It also wanted action against unscrupulous employment agencies and money lenders.

The SAR government noted the report but insisted that trafficking in persons was not prevalent here. It said there was no sign that Hong Kong was being used by syndicates as a destination or transit point.

It said the Police, the Immigration Department and Customs had been working together to improve screening and had used methods published by a local civil society umbrella group, the Civil Society Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force.

The government said, in spite of this, only 18 cases were identified in 2018 - or 0.3 percent of those screened.