Along with North Korea, Iran, Eritrea, and Equatorial Guinea, Hong Kong has been named one of the worst places in the world at taking action against modern slavery, the Global Slavery Index says.
Compared to other countries whose governments ranked lowest in terms of combating human trafficking, forced labour, and debt bondage, Hong Kong is the only one described as “wealthy and stable”.
According to the index’s regional analysis, around 30.4 million of the world’s estimated 45.8 million slaves are in the Asia-Pacific.
Reports of abuse and exploitation correlate with places where the demand for live-in help is high, such as Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.
Extortionate recruitment fees, confinement to the workplace, excessive unpaid overtime, withholding of wages and confiscation of identity documents were all listed as “indicators of forced labour” for domestic workers.
Despite calling the Hong Kong government’s response to such cases “inadequate”, the report acknowledged that the government has made “some effort” by increasing inspections of employment agencies from 1,300 per year to 1,800.
Published by the charitable Walk Free Foundation, the index provides estimates of the number of people in slavery, a breakdown of their vulnerabilities, and ranks government responses.
Governments listed as taking the most action against modern slavery were The Netherlands, USA, UK, Sweden, and Australia.
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