Human Trafficking in [Macau ] [other countries]Street Children in [Macau] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Macau] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Macau (Macao) [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] Macau (Macao) [map] is a special administrative region of China adjoining
Guangdong Province in SE China, on the estuary of the Pearl River, 40 mi W of
Hong Kong. Macau's well-to-do economy
has remained one of the most open in the world since its reversion to Macau is a
destination for the trafficking of women and girls from the Chinese mainland,
Mongolia, Russia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, and Central
Asia, for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Foreign and mainland
Chinese women and girls are deceived into migrating voluntarily to the Macau
Special Administrative Region for employment opportunities; upon arrival in
Macau, some of the victims are passed to local triad groups and forced into
sexual servitude through debt bondage, coercion, or force. Victims are
sometimes confined in massage parlors and illegal but widely tolerated
brothels, where they are closely monitored, have their identity documents
confiscated, are forced to work long hours, or are threatened with violence.
The control of the victims by organized crime syndicates makes it
particularly dangerous for them to seek help. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking
in Persons Report, June, 2008 [full country report] |
|
CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Human
Trafficking Stretches Across the Region IOM official Jonathan Martens told
a three-day conference which opened in Benoni, near South Africa's main
commercial city of Johannesburg, this week (Jun. 22) that the women are
promised employment, luxury accommodation, and a payment of between 10,000 and
20,000 dollars. Their passports are confiscated once they arrive in Macau. Martens said South African
traffickers earn around 500 dollars for every woman recruited for
prostitution in Macau, which has been labeled the "Las Vegas of
Asia" for its numerous casinos and nightclubs. Drugs play a "very
big role" in recruitment, he added. A 23-year-old woman identified as
Nicola reported to the IOM that she had met nine other black, white and mixed
race South Africans aged 18 to 21 in Macau, who were forcibly prostituted in
the former colony. ***
ARCHIVES *** Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – From
January to November, the SAR investigated 42 cases of procurement. While most
of these cases involved women who were believed to be willing participants in
the sex industry, 10 women claimed to have been brought to the SAR under
false pretenses and 3 complained of abuse. SAR authorities believed that
Chinese, Russian, and Thai criminal syndicates were involved in bringing
women to the SAR for the purposes of prostitution. Prostitutes were primarily
from mainland There were no government
assistance programs for victims of trafficking. No local NGOs specifically
dealt with the problem; however, there were charitable organizations that
provided assistance and shelter to women and children who were the victims of
abuse. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2005 [8] The Committee regrets the
limited statistical data on sexual exploitation and cross-border trafficking included
in the State party’s report, both with regard to mainland [14] The Committee is concerned at
the limited information provided about services to assist child victims with
regard to reintegration and recovery on the mainland. It is also concerned
about the absence of assistance programs specifically designed for child
victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation in the Macau SAR. [18]. The Committee notes with
appreciation the increased regional cooperation between the State party and
neighboring countries, such as Human
trafficking bill approved Luciano Oliveira, assessor to the
secretary for administration and justice, Florinda da Rosa Silva Chan, said
that the witness protection scheme will be available to any victims of human
trafficking who require it. Each case
is an independent case, as “we are dealing with people,” he said, adding that
the legal diploma and witness protection scheme will not only apply to
underaged victims but to anyone. The
government will also create a committee to deal with issues on human
trafficking, which will be “activated in specific cases, when there are
victims who need these services, because not all victims require the
same treatment,” Mr Oliveira added. Judges
asked to clamp down on trafficking "Malawian women are sold by
Nigerian syndicates... to Germany, Italy and Belgium, and this all happens
via South Africa." She said South
Africans themselves were being trafficked to Hong Kong and Macau. Chinese traffickers were using Johannesburg
as a transit point for Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique, Majokweni said.
Russian and Bulgarian women were exploited in private clubs and venues in
Johannesburg. Despite -- or perhaps because of
-- its swift development, Macau has become a major sex-trafficking
destination for victims from the Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia, Russia,
Vietnam and mainland China, according to the U.S. report. The Mongolian
government recently identified Macau as the top destination for trafficking
victims from its country. University of Macau sociologist Alex Choi counted
30 documented cases of human trafficking involving 119 women -- three of them
minors -- in 2006 alone. "And that's just the tip of the iceberg,"
he says. These were cases in which women actually came forward to report that
they were trafficking victims, according to Mr. Choi. The vast majority are
unable to do so, for fear of deportation or retribution. US
presses Macao over human trafficking “There has been minimal progress
in the past year,” Mr Lagon said.
Attitudes in Macao, 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. Sister Juliana Devoy, whose Good
Shepherd Sisters have operated a crisis centre in Macao 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.” Talent
scout nabbed for human trafficking A gay fashion show manager sending
Filipino women to China was arrested by agents of the National Bureau of
Investigation after victims complained that they ended up as sex slaves in
Macau. Lasala said Fajardo brought them
to nightclub where they had to work 20 hours a day providing sex during their
23-day stay. The duped recruits later
learned that Fajardo had abandoned them, taking all their earnings. Combating
human trafficking in Mongolia issues and opportunities [PDF] [Page 7]
Ulaanbaatar and other major urban centers, including Darkhan, Erdenet,
and Er-lian, are the main recruitment centers for traffickers and Macao is the most common destination,
though Mongolian women are also trafficked to mainland China, other parts of
Asia, and even Europe. U.S. Library of Congress
- Country Study Human
Trafficking Stretches Across the Region IOM official Jonathan Martens told
a three-day conference which opened in Benoni, near South Africa's main commercial
city of Johannesburg, this week (Jun. 22) that the women are promised
employment, luxury accommodation, and a payment of between 10,000 and 20,000
dollars. Their passports are confiscated once they arrive in Macau. Martens said South African traffickers
earn around 500 dollars for every woman recruited for prostitution in Macau,
which has been labeled the "Las Vegas of Asia" for its numerous
casinos and nightclubs. Drugs play a "very big role" in
recruitment, he added. A 23-year-old woman identified as
Nicola reported to the IOM that she had met nine other black, white and mixed
race South Africans aged 18 to 21 in Macau, who were forcibly prostituted in
the former colony. The
Crime of Trafficking of Women and Children in Mongolia - The Current
Situation [DOC] [page 17]
Various information sources report that Mongolian women are sold into
Yugoslavia, Belgium and Romania in Western Europe and China, Macau, Japan and Singapore in Asia,
in order to make profits through prostitution Asian
Migration News 16-31 May 1999 KOREA - LOCALS ARRESTED FOR TRADING
KOREAN WOMEN AS PROSTITUTES Four Koreans (another source says
five), believed to constitute a criminal ring, were arrested by the police
for making 12 Korean women work as prostitutes in Macau last year and early
this year. The syndicate has reportedly collected five million won every
month from Macau entertainment owners for "managing" the women. Macao is a destination
of trafficked women from Ukraine and Russia. Concluding
Observations of the Human Rights Committee - PORTUGAL (MACAU) - 1997 [13] The Committee is particularly
concerned at reports on the extent of trafficking in women in Macau and on
the large numbers of women from different countries who are being brought
into Macau for the purpose of prostitution. The Committee is extremely
concerned at the inaction by the authorities in preventing and penalizing
exploitation of these women and that, in particular, immigration and police
officials are not taking effective measures to protect these women and to
impose sanctions on those who are exploiting women through prostitution in
violation of article 8 of the Covenant. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Macau ] [other countries]Street Children in [Macau] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Macau] [other countries]