Human trafficking: MSAR needs to make greater efforts

The Macau SAR is listed as a ‘tier 2’ region

“The Macau SAR does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking,” the 2010 US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report, released last Monday points out. However, the report stresses, local authorities are “making significant efforts to do so.” This situation is the main reason that for the third time in a row Macau has been listed as a “tier 2” region  – meaning it does not fully comply with the minimum standards of the Human Trafficking Prevention and Control Act, but is making significant efforts to comply.
“The Government continued efforts to raise awareness about trafficking amongst officials and the general public. Authorities convicted one trafficking offender during the past year,” the Department of State recalls. But more needs to be done: “Authorities identified far fewer victims during the reporting period than in the previous year and victim identification and protection efforts need to be further improved,” the 2010 report states.
“Macau has the resources and Government infrastructure to make greater strides in combating trafficking,” it adds.
The report says that if Macau wants to be upgraded to “tier 1” it will need to significantly increase the number of investigations and prosecutions of traffickers.
According to the US Department of State, the MSAR “is primarily a destination, and to a much lesser extent, a source territory for women and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically commercial sexual exploitation.” Victims, the 2010 report reiterates, are primarily from mainland China, Mongolia, Russia, and Southeast Asia, with many of them from inland Chinese provinces who travel to the border province of Guangdong in search of better employment.
“They fall prey to false advertisements for jobs in casinos and other legitimate employment in Macau, but upon arrival, they are forced into prostitution.
“Foreign and mainland Chinese women are sometimes passed to local organised crime groups upon arrival, held captive, and forced into sexual servitude,” the report points out.
It adds that Chinese, Russian, and Thai criminal syndicates are believed to sometimes be involved in bringing women into Macau’s commercial sex industry.
“Victims are sometimes confined in massage parlours and illegal brothels, where they are closely monitored, forced to work long hours, have their identity documents confiscated, and threatened with violence; all factors that make it particularly difficult for them to seek help,” the US Department of State says.
Recently, according to the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP), Burmese women, children, and men are also believed to be trafficked to Macau, Thailand, China, Malaysia and South Korea for sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and forced labour.

Limited progress

According to the US Department of State, the MSAR government made limited progress in anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts during the reporting period. Local authorities investigated six new trafficking cases, but there were no cases of joint investigations between Macau authorities and foreign governments during that period.
“In one ongoing investigation, law enforcement officials arrested six individuals who appeared to have been running a trafficking operation for over a decade,” the report states.
“In November 2009, Macau prosecutors convicted their first trafficking offender under the anti-trafficking law. A local man was sentenced to over seven years’ imprisonment for his role in the trafficking of two female Macau residents to Japan in 2008,” it highlights. However, it adds, “corruption remains a serious problem in Macau, often linked to the gambling industry and organised crime networks.”
Limited progress was also made in its efforts to protect trafficking victims, particularly in the proactive identification of trafficking victims. “Authorities identified six sex trafficking victims during the reporting period, a significant decrease from the 23 victims identified during the previous reporting period,” the report indicates.
Moreover, the Department of State adds, “the MSAR Government did not report any efforts to identify trafficking cases amongst the more than 1,600 migrant workers who filed labour complaints in 2009.”
For the US Department of State, local authorities “should further improve efforts to proactively identify trafficking victims among individuals deported for immigration violations, including women in prostitution.”
“The MSAR needs to make greater efforts to cooperate with source country governments on cross-border trafficking cases to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenders and continue to use proactive victim identification procedures to increase the number of trafficking victims identified by authorities, such as among women arrested for prostitution offenses and migrant workers,” the report advises.
More efforts to investigate and prosecute official complicity in trafficking, as well as to combat international organised crime syndicates should be put in place.
Local authorities must also provide incentives for victims to assist authorities in the prosecution of their traffickers, such as the ability to work in Macau, and support a visible anti-trafficking awareness campaign directed at employers and clients of the commercial sex trade, the report concludes.