Why Hong Kong needs new legislation to curb human trafficking
Does Hong Kong have a problem with human trafficking? Is the government going to create some legislation to combat the practice? Dhruv Tikekar goes in search of a few answers
It’s been almost 13 years since the Palermo protocols were set in motion by the United Nations, establishing a series of measures to combat transnational human trafficking, smuggling and the manufacturing of illegal arms. The protocol overseeing human trafficking, in particular, set its sights on protecting and assisting the victims of these human rights violations. It also sought to clearly define the act itself by addressing a broad range of means employed for the ‘recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons’ for the purposes of asserting control over those persons or exploiting them in some way.
Great for the UN, then. But Hong Kong didn’t write any such definition into its legislative framework. And it still hasn’t done. In fact, there’s no broad legislative framework in our SAR that addresses the issue at all and, with this, comes uncertain consequences. In the annual Trafficking in Persons report released by the US State Department earlier this month, Hong Kong was recognised as having laws that ‘do not prohibit all forms of trafficking’ as well as having ‘no specific criminal offence related to the crime’ of human trafficking.
“[The Hong Kong government] is consistently in denial about Hong Kong being a destination, transit and origin for human trafficking,” says Jade A