Gaming operators urged to help fight human trafficking

Juliana Devoy

The Good Shepherd Center is calling on local businesses and casino operators to incorporate “a zero tolerance” policy on human trafficking, and the further training of staff to spot and report any potential cases. The center, together with Vital Voices USA, will be holding a one-day summit next Tuesday at MGM Macau themed “Business Leadership to End Human Trafficking & Modern Day Slavery.”
“The purpose of the conference is to raise awareness about human trafficking and its many faces,” said sister Juliana Devoy, director of the Good Shepherd Center.
She added that it is critical to involve the business community in the fight against human trafficking, to urge them to look into the end of their supply chain and to make sure that their products or goods are not produced through slave labor.
Sister Juliana recalled a case of a 13-year-old girl who was being used as a prostitute at a local hotel. She believes that training hotel staff to spot and act upon any potential human trafficking cases would help to tackle the problem.
Businesses should implement a zero tolerance policy “for any kind of sex trafficking taking place in or around their casino,” she said.
“They can be trained up, and if they see that there are potential trafficking victims, they can alert the police, because the police can’t just go in unless they have a tip off,” she stressed.
“I don’t think most of the hotels [and companies] provide this kind of training for their staff. There are many things that can be done and are being done in other places, but, as far as I am aware, nothing of that kind is being done in Macau. They do not have public policy statements about their policy on human trafficking,” she told a press conference yesterday.
Another strategy to combat human trafficking that companies could adopt, she said, regards their own supply chain. Sister Juliana recalled that some enterprises fail to look into the end of their supply chain to make sure that none of their goods are being produced through slave labor.
“Not everyone knows [about human trafficking]. So, for me, this is a very important effort, too, to really get the business community involved.”
Sister Juliana said that Macau’s law against human trafficking, which came into force in 2008, is suitable, and that the government has been willing to tackle the problem. However, law enforcement is often hindered with many cases unable to reach the courtroom due to lack of evidence.
The conference will take place at MGM Macau on Tuesday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Representatives of local companies, casino operators, worldwide organizations, and human trafficking researchers and experts from the United States and Asia have been invited to speak.
Sister Juliana revealed that a representative of hotel operator Carlson/Rezidor Hotels will also be speaking at the summit, as their company has been implementing policies to help tackle human trafficking.
Other speakers include representatives from several organizations, such as Macau’s Social Welfare Bureau (IAS), the Global Fund to End Slavery, CSR-­Asia, and from different consulates. Kathleen Ferrier, who is an expert in international relations and a member of the United Nations-related Expert Review Group (ERG), will also be speaking in the afternoon.
About 100 participants have registered to attend the summit, including representatives of several casino operators, such as Galaxy, MGM, Wynn and SJM, sister Juliana revealed.
The summit is organized by the Good Shepherd Center in cooperation with Vital Voices USA, which was founded by Hilary Clinton.
The event is also supported by the Macau government, with the collaboration of the European Union Office to Hong Kong & Macau, and the Macau Government Human Trafficking Deterrent Measures Concern Committee. Several government entities, as well as MGM Macau and Galaxy Entertainment Group, contributed financially towards the conference.
According to sister Juliana, the International Labor Organization estimates that there are 21 million human trafficking victims worldwide, which makes “forced labor and sex trade one of the greatest human rights violations of our time.”

‘Human trafficking has many faces’

Although sex trafficking is one of the most common types of modern slavery, human trafficking still “has many faces and types,” according to sister Juliana Devoy.
“The traditional [cases] where [victims] are being beaten up and tied up are still happening. But that’s not the only way [it happens]. In the cases we get at the center, the girls’ vulnerability is exploited. They are very young and ignorant – they’re easily seduced,” she told reporters on the sidelines of a press conference, where she was to announce a summit on human trafficking that will take place next Tuesday.
The Good Shepherd Center, sister Juliana revealed, has provided shelter to 39 under-aged girls – victims of human or sex trafficking – from mainland China over the past two years.
The center received fewer cases in 2014 than in the previous year. Sister Juliana said that the center does not know whether this decrease is related to stricter border control or the crackdown on corruption in mainland China.
Although Macau’s government is committed to treating these victims as children in need of protection, sister Juliana recalled that the girls only stay at the center for one or two weeks, and it is hard to follow up on their cases and to ensure that they will not enter any human trafficking network again.
“When they go back, we worry that they go back to do the same. And we have no way to track that information down (…) usually they are school dropouts and they just want to leave,” sister Juliana said.
The center is trying to link up with other associations that are providing assistance to these victims in mainland China, so that there’s a better way to tackle these cases.
According to sister Juliana, there are cases of sex trafficking victims of other nationalities in Macau. “There are human trafficking victims inside saunas, but the police can’t go there without being tipped off. These saunas are legal. Many girls who end up in these places thought that they were coming here just to do massage, but then they [the owners] want them to be prostitutes,” she said.
Sister Juliana warned that “they feel like they don’t have a choice. They go along and feel they have compromised themselves, and they don’t see themselves as victims.”