Sex trafficking in Hong Kong

Hong Kong citizen and foreign victims are sex trafficked into and out of the districts of Hong Kong

Sex trafficking in Hong Kong is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a city of origin and a destination for sexually trafficked persons. The Government of Hong Kong denies that trafficking is a prevalent crime in Hong Kong, ^[1] but the U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons ranked Hong Kong as Tier 2 watchlist in its Trafficking in Persons Report in 2016, ^[2] where, except in 2019 ^[3] and 2023, ^[4] it has remained. ^[1] The Government has rebutted the reports on several occasions. ^{[5] [6]}

Hong Kong women and children are victims of sex trafficking within the region. ^[1] A lot of the prostitutes in Hong Kong are from Mainland China. Researchers and sources within the industry suggest many of them are trafficked. ^{[7] [8]} Traffickers recruit victims from Thailand, ^[9] the Philippines, Mainland China, and countries in South America using false promises of lucrative employment and force them into commercial sex. Some foreign victims entered Hong Kong on two-week tourist visas, as part of a circuit of major cities in the region used by traffickers, including Bangkok and Taipei, and were coerced into commercial sex through debt-based coercion. Some employment agencies reportedly hired foreign domestic workers under false pretences and forced them into commercial sex. Women from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia are also sex trafficked into Hong Kong. ^[1]

Triads have been involved in sex trafficking in Hong Kong for many years. ^{[10] [11]} Thunderbolt 2023, a crackdown on Triads between 12 June and 21 September, resulted in 6,400. Some of these arrests were in connection with sex trafficking. ^[12] 28 people, with connections to the 14K Triads, were arrested in November 2024 in connection with sex trafficking. ^[13]

NGOs report increasing occurrences of online commercial sex acts. Traffickers use coercive methods, such as threats of reporting victims to police or immigration authorities, withholding of identification documents, and blackmailing victims with threats of online distribution of photographs, to coerce them to engage in online commercial sex acts. ^[1]

Women from Hong Kong are trafficked into North America and the UK for commercial sex. ^{[1] [14]}

Legal situation

Section 129(1) of the Crimes Ordinance states:

Who takes part in bringing another person into, or taking a person out of, Hong Kong, for the purpose of prostitution, shall be guilty of an offence …. ^[15]

Section 129(2) adds that the consent a person being trafficked is not a defence. ^[15]

As the Ordinance only covers cross-border trafficking, domestic victims are not covered. ^[15]

Hong Kong is not a signatory of the UN TIP Protocol. ^[15] The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have recommended Hong Kong ratify the Protocol and introduce legislation to outlaw all forms of Human Trafficking. ^{[16] [17]}

References

1. "2024 Trafficking in Persons Report: Hong Kong". United States Department of State . Retrieved 11 February 2025. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
2. "2016 Trafficking in Persons Report: Hong Kong". U.S. Department of State . Retrieved 11 February 2025.
3. "2019 Trafficking in Persons Report: Hong Kong". United States Department of State. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
4. "2023 Trafficking in Persons Report: Hong Kong". United States Department of State. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
5. "Human trafficking report rebutted". Hong Kong's Information Services Department (in Chinese (Hong Kong)). 20 July 2022. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
6. "Hong Kong bites back after US trafficking downgrade- UCA News". ucanews.com. 26 June 2024. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
7. Wordie, Jason (16 January 2016). "Then & Now | Human trafficking in Hong Kong: hidden in plain sight". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 15 February 2025.
8. Joe Laidler, Karen; Emerton, Robyn; Petersen, Carole (2007). "Trafficking of Mainland Chinese Women into Hong Kong's Sex Industry: Problems of Identification and Response". Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law. 8 (2): 35–84. doi:10.1163/157181507783877023. hdl: 10125/66097 .
9. Lo, Clifford (10 February 2023). "'Queen of Temple Street' toppled as Hong Kong police break human trafficking ring". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 15 February 2025.
10. Kong, Chu Yiu (2007). "Triad Involvement in the Sex Service Industry in Hong Kong and Its Impacts on Southeast Asia". Investigating the Grey Areas of the Chinese Communities in Southeast Asia: 75–90. doi:10.4000/books.irasec.335. ISBN   978-974-7709-40-7.
11. Fraser, Alistair; Joe-Laidler, Karen (1 January 2024). "Gangs and the Gig Economy: Triads, Precarity and Illicit Work in Hong Kong". The British Journal of Criminology. 64 (1): 139–156. doi:10.1093/bjc/azad018.
12. "Hong Kong police arrest 6,400 people, seize $52 million in triad crackdown - EFE". EFE Noticias. 27 September 2023. Retrieved 15 February 2025.
13. Wang, Ayra (18 November 2024). "28 held over slick sex-trafficking ring". The Standard . Retrieved 15 February 2025.
14. Bennetto, Jason (10 August 1997). "Triads target British sex trade". The Independent . Retrieved 15 February 2025.
15. Lo, Noble Po-kan (11 September 2024). "Hong Kong anti-human trafficking framework: what lessons can be learned from Europe?". Frontiers in Sociology. 9. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1395907 . ISSN   2297-7775. PMC   11422342 . PMID   39323991.
16. "Legislation and other tactics. Combatting human trafficking in Hong Kong | IIAS". www.iias.asia. Autumn 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
17. "Concluding observations on the combined fourteenth to seventeenth periodic reports of China (including Hong Kong, China and Macao, China)". docstore.ohchr.org. 19 September 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2025.