The Macao Special Administrative Region Anti-Human Trafficking Report （2019-2023）
06-08-2024

Preamble

In order to prevent and combat human trafficking and related illegal activities, the Macao Special Administrative Region Government established the Human Trafficking Deterrent Measures Concern Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Committee) in 2007. The Committee is supervised by the Secretary for Security which consists of members from fields of administrative and legal affairs, economic and financial affairs, security and social and cultural affairs, aiming to study relevant crime trends, continuously follow up, evaluate and coordinate actions of participating bureaus through regular meetings so as to facilitate effective implementation of the goal of preventing and combating human trafficking. In 2008, the government formulated and implemented Law No. 6/2008 "Combating the Crime of Trafficking in Persons" to further furnish the existing criminal system and better fulfill the obligations stipulated in relevant international conventions applicable to Macao.
　　
Macao has always been in compliance with relevant legal provisions and common international prevention strategies. By actively participating in international cooperation, properly protecting victims and coordinating relevant government bureaus to cooperate with the judicial authorities in combating related criminal activities, after years of efforts, Macao has achieved good results in deterring human trafficking and related illegal activities. The incidence rate of related cases has remained low or even zero for many years. The safety of local residents and visitors has been effectively safeguarded. However, some countries, out of malicious motives, still ignore this fact and continuously distort the situation in Macao by making false accusations through different channels.
　　
Due to the abovementioned reason, the security authorities have been disclosing law enforcement data and related information through different channels such as the webpage of the Human Trafficking Deterrent Measures Concern Committee. However, in order to better integrate the unified release of relevant information and enhance its transparency, the security authorities hereby announce a detailed report on relevant work in Macao between 2019 and 2023 with the aim to provide better understanding to international society regarding Macao’s effort in the execution of related tasks through the publication of relevant statistic figures and analysis, and thus allowing the public to objectively understand the implementation of relevant policies in Macao in recent years.

Text
　　
In order to realize the strategies of the prevention and combat against human trafficking in Macao, the Committee sets up 6 working groups: prevention and promotion, victim protection, investigation follow-up, prevention of forced labor, prevention of trafficking human organs and tissues, and treaties, conventions and legal affairs so that the Committee’s scope of duties is shared and each group carries out its designated tasks based on the decision of the Committee.
　　
Below, the security authorities will report on the overall situation of the prevention and combat against human trafficking in Macao from four aspects according to the overall strategies adopted:

1. Prevention
　　
Macao’s strategies for tackling human trafficking are based on the "prevention first" principle. Under the holistic leadership of the government, the Committee coordinates different bureaus to continuously carry out prevention work against human trafficking and related illegal activities within their scope of responsibilities, especially through means such as publicity and education, training, etc. As a result, it hopes to strengthen residents and visitors' awareness and understanding of relevant legal systems, crime characteristics and prevention work so as to constantly improve the awareness of all sectors of society and the ability to identify and respond to suspicious situations.
　　
From 2019 to 2023, the Committee coordinated relevant bureaus to provide a total of 100 professional training classes related to the prevention of human trafficking crimes to 2,650 officers at different levels of the security forces and security departments and 930 employment service instructors, 288 seminars to more than 23,000 employees from different sectors of society, as well as 289 explanatory sessions related to labor rights and obligations to over 21,000 participants. The Social Welfare Bureau organized 11 seminars to 189 frontline staff of public and private social service agencies, 3 lectures for 355 teachers and students from educational institutions and 2 workshops for 34 college students. In addition, relevant bureaus continued to disseminate crime prevention information to the public and people of different ethnic groups through video channels, local print and electronic media and publication of leaflets in multiple languages.

2. Law enforcement
　　
Macao enjoys independent judicial power in accordance with the law and adheres to a criminal system in which the judicial authorities lead the police to conduct criminal investigations, while the judicial authorities independently carry out prosecutions and trials. Regarding any criminal cases of human trafficking, the Committee has been coordinating relevant bureaus to cooperate with judicial authorities in the investigation and trial in accordance with the law so as to fulfill the objective of cracking down on related crimes effectively.
　　
Meanwhile, for the sake of effective crime prevention, member bureaus of the Committee have been carrying out regular or unscheduled inspections, individually or jointly, and to handle any illegal situations in accordance with their scope of duties. Between 2019 and 2023, law enforcement authorities conducted a total of 1,426 inspections targeting prostitution/human trafficking and 7,640 inspections targeting illegal employment, as well as conducting large-scale annual joint police operations such as "Thunderbolt" and "Winter Precaution" so as to follow up on any suspicious situations. During the same period, the Labor Affairs Bureau conducted a total of 281 large-scale inspections, 544 preventive inspections and 1,081 questionnaire surveys on construction sites in Macao, as well as 1,863 inspections targeting more than 140 employment agencies.

By means of the joint efforts of administrative bureaus and judicial authorities, human trafficking crime has been effectively deterred. According to the law enforcement agencies’ records, since the implementation of Law No. 6/2008, human trafficking related crimes in Macao have shown a significant downward trend and have been at a low or even zero crime rate for many years. From 2019 to 2023, the police respectively transferred one suspected human trafficking case to the Public Prosecutions Office in 2019 and 2022. In 2021, the Public Prosecutions Office prosecuted one criminal case with the charge of human trafficking and one of the suspects was found guilty later in the same year.
　　
As for the information released by certain countries, Macao was falsely accused that the authorities had preferred not to prosecute and convict for human trafficking crimes, some SAR government officials had been involved in sex trafficking, the authorities had failed to identify potential victims and overseas SAR government official had been involved in commercial sex, etc. It has to be emphasized the Macao police have been constantly taking measures to enhance intelligence consolidation to prevent and combat human trafficking crime and such crime has been effectively deterred. The aforementioned situations have never existed in Macao. Authorities in Macao have refuted and deplored the false accusations for many years.

3. Victim protection
　　
Over the years, the Committee has been coordinating government bureaus and local non-governmental organizations to establish collaboration mechanisms and take measures to protect and support victims. According to their respective functions, these participating public and private entities have provided a wide range of services such as shelter, medical care, personal safety, immigration assistance, interpretation, training and counseling, etc. which are dedicated to ensuring the physical and mental health of victims, helping them reintegrate into society, and ultimately return to their place of origin safely.

According to information provided by the Social Welfare Bureau, no one has sought to use the above services between 2019 and 2023. This is believed to be closely related to the fact that human trafficking crime and related illegal activities have become increasingly low or even zero in Macao.

4. Collaboration and management
　　
In order to effectively prevent and deter human trafficking and related illegal activities, the Committee has been actively coordinating relevant government bureaus and different sectors of Macao society to jointly carry out various types of works. In addition to the abovementioned publicity, education, training and victim protection works, a number of telephone hotlines have been set up for citizens to report suspicious incidents or seek help in order to form the greatest social synergy and build a solid protection network.
　　
It is worth noting that the changes in the number of help-seeking or reports recorded by the above hotlines between 2019 and 2023 reflect, to a certain extent, the trend of low or even zero incidence of human trafficking crimes in Macao: the "24-hour Report and Assistance Hotline" (2888 9911) received a total of 84 inquiry calls, and respectively received 1 call for help in 2019 and 2020. During the same period, the "Combat and Prevention of Forced Labor Hotline" (2871 7790) received a total of 680 calls, mainly involving consultations on labor laws, none of which involved cases where any potential victim was identified or further investigation required. It can be seen that with the joint efforts of government bureaus and different sectors of society, human trafficking and related illegal activities have been effectively deterred in Macao.
　　
On the other hand, Macao also actively participates in international and regional cooperation in preventing related issues. As an applicable area to many relevant international conventions, Macao has always fulfilled its international obligations and regularly accepts review on its implementation by international organizations. To this end, the Committee continues to participate in different ways by coordinating relevant government bureaus. At the same time, the Committee also coordinates relevant government bureaus to grasp the latest status of regional human trafficking problems and precautions for their prevention through regional cooperation frameworks in a timely manner so as to continuously optimize local policies and measures and better implement necessary and effective prevention strategies.

Conclusion
　　
Looking back on the situation in Macao between 2019 and 2023, although it was severely disrupted by the COVID-19 epidemic, the Committee still continued to implement relevant prevention and combat strategies in accordance with the law with the full support of the SAR government. The outcome can be recognized by international community as a result of effective collaboration between government bureaus and all walks of life in Macao. Macao's unremitting efforts in this regard, as well as the objective facts of Macao's prevention and deterrence of human trafficking and related illegal activities must not be distorted or even obliterated by the one-sided words of individual countries.

In spite of everything, Macao’s determination to prevent human trafficking and related illegal activities will remain unwavering. The Committee, under the lead of the SAR government, will continue to implement necessary prevention and combat strategies and collaborate with all stakeholders so as to firmly protect the safety and legitimate rights of local residents and visitors. (End)

Office of the Secretary for Security

Back>