Gov’t refutes US report on human trafficking in Macau

The Office of the Secretary for Security in Macau has expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the United States Department of State’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report, which rated the Macau Special Administrative Region as a Tier 3 country.

According to the report, Macau’s rating is due to fact that the city “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, based on publicly available information.”

The “overall anti-trafficking law enforcement and victim protection efforts remained inadequate. The government did not report proactively screening vulnerable populations, such as individuals engaged in commercial sex work, for trafficking indicators, and the government has not reported identifying or providing services to any victims since 2022,” the report claimed.

The report even featured a “Prioritized Recommendations” section, advising the Macau government to “significantly increase proactive victim identification; significantly increase efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict sex and labor traffickers; develop, approve, and implement an updated anti-trafficking action plan; and provide anti-trafficking training to relevant government personnel.”

As a response, the Office of the Secretary for Security highlighted Macau’s longstanding efforts to prevent and control human trafficking and related illegal activities. Under Law No. 6/2008 “Combating the Crime of Human Trafficking” and through the work of the Human Trafficking Deterrent Measures Concern Committee, Macau has actively participated in international cooperation, properly protected victims, and coordinated with judicial authorities to investigate and prosecute relevant crimes.

The local government also stated that related crimes have been effectively curbed, with Macau maintaining a very low or even non-existent crime rate for many years.

The response criticized the United States for failing to address the serious human trafficking situation within its own borders while making “false accusations against various places.”

The Security authority described the content related to Macau in the US report as untrue, and argued that the report’s intention goes beyond preventing and controlling the crime of human trafficking, representing an interference in Macau’s internal affairs.

In the statement, the SAR government reaffirmed its determination to continue its efforts to prevent human trafficking and other illegal activities through the Human Trafficking Deterrence Measures Concern Committee. The government pledged to work with the international community to eliminate human trafficking and all forms of exploitation. Howard Tong