Macau, China, 29 Jun – The United States has urged Macau authorities to “significantly increase efforts to vigorously investigate and prosecute” human trafficking offenders, The Macau Post Daily reports today.
The US State Department made the appeal in its Trafficking in Persons Report 2011, which was released in Washington on Monday.
The annual report also called on the local government to “make efforts to assess whether forced labour is occurring in Macau, particularly of migrant workers.”
The report also urged the local authorities to “use proactive victim identification procedures to increase the number of trafficking victims identified by authorities, such as among women arrested for prostitution offences and migrant workers.” It also pushes Macau to “make greater efforts to combat international organised crime syndicates involved in human trafficking” and to “expand incentives for victims to assist authorities in the prosecution of their traffickers, such as the ability to work in Macau .”
The report also urges the local government to “take steps to reduce the vulnerability of migrant workers to forced labour by re-examining immigration laws that increase this vulnerability.” (MacauNews/Politics)
