Human trafficking in Macao has been on a “downward trend” since the Trafficking in Persons Law was implemented in 2008, according to a new report from the Office of the Secretary for Security (known by its Portuguese initials GSS).
Published yesterday, the report highlighted work carried out in the SAR to prevent human trafficking between 2019 and 2023. It said that within those five years, only two suspected human trafficking cases were referred to the Public Prosecutions Office. Criminal charges were filed for one of the cases and, in 2021, some of its defendants were found guilty.
The report also noted that just two out of 84 calls made to its “24-hour Anti-Human Trafficking Report Hotline” during the five year period were requests for help. Its “Combat and Prevention of Forced Labor Hotline”, meanwhile, received 680 calls – but GSS said those were “mainly involving consultations on labour laws”. None of the calls involved a trafficking victim or needed to be investigated, the office noted.
[See more: Is Macao on par with Afghanistan when it comes to human trafficking?]
Local law enforcement authorities conducted 1,426 patrols targeting human trafficking and prostitution and 7,640 inspection operations targeting illegal employment between 2019 and 2023, GSS said. They also carried out large-scale joint operations with mainland authorities.
GSS’s report appears in stark contrast to last year’s damning commentary from the US State Department claiming that Macao’s government “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.”
The US put Macao on par with Afghanistan and Syria when it came to implementing anti-trafficking measures and threatened to impose sanctions on the SAR. Macao’s government has strenuously denied not following international protocol.
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In Tuesday’s report, GSS said that “certain countries” falsely accused Macao’s authorities of failing to prosecute and convict for human trafficking crimes. The report also stated that these countries claimed “some SAR government officials are involved in sex trafficking” themselves, and that government personnel stationed overseas were “provided with commercial sex transactions.”
In response to the allegations, GSS said that the government’s “outstanding” track record in the battle against human trafficking “must not be twisted or erased by the one-sided remarks of other countries”.
“As the local police continue to take effective preventive and crackdown measures and continuously strengthen relevant intelligence work, the crime of human trafficking has been effectively curbed in Macao,” it reiterated.
