US Department of State | Macau not doing enough on human trafficking

Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during a news conference for the 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report

The US Department of State issued the 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report which claims Macau is not doing enough to combat human trafficking.
In the report, Macau SAR continues to be present on Tier 2, the second highest. The classification represents the conclusions from the US department that the local government “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.”
On the positive side, the report highlights the establishment of a “communication mechanism with hotel employees to report potential trafficking situations,” or a system that directly reports to police.
On the down side, the document urges the MSAR government to “increase efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict sex and labor traffickers; institute a minimum wage for foreign domestic workers; continue to improve and consistently implement proactive victim identification methods, especially among vulnerable populations such as migrant workers and children exploited in commercial sex; continue to educate law enforcement and other officials and the public on forced labor and sex trafficking; conduct sex trafficking awareness campaigns so visitors in Macau understand soliciting or engaging in prostitution with children is a crime; and conduct a survey of the migrant labor population to identify its vulnerabilities to trafficking.”
One of the highlights of the report addresses the establishment of a minimum wage for foreign domestic workers, which the report claims to be “potential targets.”
In response to report  the Office of the Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, issued a statement on Friday. The local authorities state that the report includes “misinterpretation and wrongful conclusions as well as unsubstantiated claims about the situation in Macau.”
“The Government has paid great importance to preventing and combating illegal activities related to human trafficking, and to that end has created the Human Trafficking Deterrent Measures Concern Committee (CAMDTP) and implemented the Law No. 6/2008 regarding human trafficking, as well as having followed international policies and undertaking practical steps to prevent the phenomenon,” the statement reads.
The US Department report also states that MSAR region is considered “primarily a destination and, to a much lesser extent, a transit territory for women and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor.”
“Many trafficking victims usually respond to false advertisements for jobs, including in casinos in Macau, but upon arrival are forced into prostitution. Traffickers sometimes confine victims in massage parlors and illegal brothels, where they are closely monitored, threatened with violence, forced to work long hours, and have their identity documents confiscated. Children are reportedly subjected to sex trafficking in connection with the gambling and entertainment industry in Macau.”
Although the government’s allocation of MOP3.2 million for prevention and countering of trafficking as well as the establishment of a new Judiciary Police anti-trafficking taskforce within the organized crime division, the measures have reportedly failed to produce results as “there were no trafficking convictions in 2015, and the government identified only six sex trafficking victims.”