US adds Macau to trafficking blacklist

A US report has placed Macau on the country’s Tier 3 Watch List for allegedly failing to identify or provide services to victims of human trafficking. The report also noted that Macau has not initiated any trafficking prosecutions for the third consecutive year.

Countries or regions placed in Tier 3 are those whose governments do not fully meet the minimum standards within the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) and who, it has been deemed, are not making significant efforts to do so.

According to its 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report, the US Department of State stated that the Macau government “has not convicted a trafficker since 2019 and has never identified a victim of forced labor.”

As cited in the report, Washington accused the government of not fully meeting the “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and … not making significant efforts to do so, even considering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity.”

The US department stated that the “government maintained weak protection efforts, and authorities did not report identifying or providing services to any victims for the third consecutive year,” and that it has “never” identified labor trafficking victims in Macau.

Meanwhile, the SAR government maintained anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. 

Law 6/2008 amended the penal code and criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of three to 20 years’ imprisonment, depending on the age of the victim. 

However, “the government has not initiated any trafficking prosecutions since 2018 and has not convicted a trafficker since 2019.”

“Officials reportedly believed a victims’ initial consent or ‹voluntary association’ with a trafficker was sufficient evidence to prove a trafficking crime did not occur, which sometimes led to trafficking cases being pursued under other crimes and weakened victim identification efforts,” the US department stated.

It also slammed Macau for the absence of standard labor laws for domestic workers.

While there was a required minimum income threshold for employers to be able to sustain a monthly wage of at least a MOP3,000 patacas, there was no minimum wage for foreign domestic workers, “a situation which may have increased their vulnerability to trafficking,” the report noted.

It recalled that the government adjudicated 1,758 labor dispute cases in 2021, “but did not report how many inspections it conducted at construction sites or employment agencies for labor violations.”

“The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or provide anti-trafficking training to its personnel posted overseas.” 

It also added that domestic workers in the SAR may be vulnerable to forced labor in Macau, noting that some employment agencies overcharged workers with recruitment fees of approximately two to three months’ salary and withheld workers’ passports, potentially leading to debt-based coercion.

“Some brokers bring migrant workers to Macau to renew work visas for other countries, while restricting their movement and withholding their passports,” it added.

SAR expresses ‘strong indignation’ at US report

The Office of the Secretary for Security slammed the report, claiming that the government has been providing full support for victims of trafficking. 

To the Commission for Monitoring the Measures to Deter Trafficking in Persons, the office stated that human trafficking remains at a “low percentage or an almost zero percentage in Macau.”

“The Macau SAR government [strongly disputes] and expresses its strong indignation at the irresponsibly-made comments on the work of law enforcement and the judicial system in Macau,” the office, led by Wong Sio Chak, said.

“In the 2022 report, and despite not having up-to-date and accurate knowledge about the global situation in Macau, the US continues to utter meaningless statements regarding the work to prevent and combat human trafficking carried out by Macau, presenting subjective judgments.”
The office then pledged that security authorities will continue active cooperation with judicial bodies, with a view to carrying out law enforcement work, and continue to strengthen international and interregional exchange and cooperation.