The department's annual Trafficking in Persons report, released last month ,
placed the casino boom town on its "tier 2 watch list" for the second
consecutive year, just one rung above the bottom tier 3 category that includes
the likes of Sudan, Iran and Burma. If relegated to tier 3, Macau could face US
sanctions.
"The chance of Macau being on tier 3 is significant if it does not take steps
[to improve before next year's report]," Mark Lagon, director of the Office to
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, told the Financial Times. Mr Lagon
visited Macau last week, where he met the territory's chief executive, Edmund
Ho.
In 2005 the US relegated Cambodia to the bottom tier and imposed sanctions in a
bid to force the enactment of anti-trafficking laws. After Cambodia did so, its
ranking was improved.
According to the state department, Macau lacks a set of comprehensive
anti-trafficking laws and often fails to investigate or prosecute cases. It
also criticised the Macau government for not recognising it had a significant
trafficking problem.
"There has been minimal progress in the past year," Mr Lagon said.
Attitudes in Macau, however, may be changing. Mr Lagon said Mr Ho admitted the
territory had not done enough and "expressed a will to address [the problem]
within months".
"It was a marked change in rhetoric," Mr Lagon said. The Macau government
declined to comment.
The rapid growth of Macau's gaming market, now the world's largest, has buoyed
growth but exacerbated social problems in the territory of 500,000 people.
As with Las Vegas, prostitution is legal in Macau. Many saunas and massage
parlours, however, operate illegally as thinly disguised brothels and employ
women from mainland China, Thailand, Russia and Mongolia.
"There is going to be a magnet for sex trafficking when there is a booming sex
industry," said Mr Lagon.
Sister Juliana Devoy, whose Good Shepherd Sisters have operated a crisis centre
in Macau for 17 years, said it had only dealt with a few victims of sex
trafficking.
"The main problem is that we don't know how to contact the victims and the
victims don't know how to contact us," she said. "They are not free to just
walk around on the streets."
The Financial Times
