Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06HONGKONG4066
2006-10-13 10:29:00
CONFIDENTIAL//NOFORN
Consulate Hong Kong
Cable title:  

G/TIP OUTREACH TO MACAU GOVERNMENT ON COMBATING

Tags:  KCRM SMIG SOCI PGOV PHUM HK CH MC MG 
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VZCZCXRO8349
PP RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHHK #4066/01 2861029
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 131029Z OCT 06
FM AMCONSUL HONG KONG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9023
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK PRIORITY 9718
RUEHUM/AMEMBASSY ULAANBAATAR PRIORITY 1066
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HONG KONG 004066 

SIPDIS

NOFORN
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP AND EAP/CM
NSC FOR DENNIS WILDER
FOR G/TIP SENIOR COORDINATOR TAYLOR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/13/2031
TAGS: KCRM SMIG SOCI PGOV PHUM HK CH MC MG
SUBJECT: G/TIP OUTREACH TO MACAU GOVERNMENT ON COMBATING
HUMAN TRAFFICKING

REF: HONG KONG 3970

Classified By: Acting Deputy Principal Officer Laurent Charbonnet. Reas
ons: 1.4 (b, d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HONG KONG 004066

SIPDIS

NOFORN
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP AND EAP/CM
NSC FOR DENNIS WILDER
FOR G/TIP SENIOR COORDINATOR TAYLOR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/13/2031
TAGS: KCRM SMIG SOCI PGOV PHUM HK CH MC MG
SUBJECT: G/TIP OUTREACH TO MACAU GOVERNMENT ON COMBATING
HUMAN TRAFFICKING

REF: HONG KONG 3970

Classified By: Acting Deputy Principal Officer Laurent Charbonnet. Reas
ons: 1.4 (b, d).


1. (C) Summary: Mark Taylor, Senior Coordinator for the
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP),
accompanied by Gayatri Patel, G/TIP Reports Officer for
China, met with government and non-government contacts in
Macau September 29-30 to gather information on human
trafficking and to assess the Macau Government's efforts to
combat the problem. Officials and social workers in Macau
showed slighty greater awareness of Macaus trafficking
problem; nevertheless, Macau contiues to lack a law
enforcement response to inboun trafficking and data on
trafficking remains sparse. One Macau Governent officer
requested USG asistance to mature Macau's program to combat
traficking. Several interlocutors also said that orgnized
crime had complicated measures to combat tafficking. End
summary.

Macau Government: Pleading for Ideas
--------------


2. (C) Taylor met with Patricia Ferreira, Deputy Director of
Macau's International Law Office, who acknowledged the
trafficking problem in Macau and sought help maturing her
Government's program to combat it. Ferreira urged us to
build contacts with social welfare associations and to
propose practical ideas for Macau's Government to consider
and implement. She suggested contacting the Women's General
Association of Macau and the Institute of Social Affairs, the
latter of which studies trafficking issues of "entertainment
industry workers" as well as domestic violence. Ferreira
said that one study underway by the "Women's Commission"
would evaluate laws relating to women's issues. According to
Ferreira, "parallel realities" existed in Macau; the public's
view of street life in Macau, versus the casino underworld.

Macau's social fabric, acknowledged Ferreira, was highly
affected by mafia activities.


3. (C) Ferreira said preventative measures on trafficking
would require "political authority" from Florinda Chan, the
Secretary for Administration and Justice, but that "good

SIPDIS
ideas in practical terms" that were consistent with Macau's
laws and realities were also required. She suggested
consulting the Commission for Women's Affairs, led by Chan
and comprised of both Government and private members, about
its efforts to advise Macau's Government on women's and
children's welfare issues.


4. (C) Referring to Macau's legal gambling and prostitution,
Ferreira opined that Macau was a "city of sin." If INTERPOL
referred trafficking cases to Macau, MSAR police would
investigate, but she cautioned that witness protection was
not easily guaranteed. "We can't protect them" from the
triads and judges are afraid of trying cases involving triad
interests, she stated, illustrating this point by stating
that judges had to be flown in from Portugal for important
anti-triad prosecutions during the MSARG's crackdown on
triads in the 1990's. Many non-trafficking crimes in Macau
are solved in a matter of minutes because of Macau's
extremely effective system of technical street surveillance
(cameras, etc.). Additionally, MSAR's Judiciary Police,
charged with investigating serious crimes, would sometimes
round up groups off the street for "immigration control,"
followed by 48 hours of detention, and that this afforded the
police an opportunity to identify trafficking victims.
Ferreira outlined the organization of Macau's police forces:
Security Police, responsible for street policing of minor
crimes; Judiciary Police, responsible for serious crimes; and
the Special Operations Group, responsible for enforcing the
most serious and sensitive crimes in Macau. The
International Law Office has requested a law requiring the
public prosecutor's office to supply statistics about crime
investigations, but Ferreira did not seem optimistic that it
would be passed soon.


5. (C) Taylor questioned Ferreira about information he had
gathered from the Mongolian government and Mongolia-based
NGOs claiming that groups of Mongolians had been trafficked
into Macau. Ferreira acknowledged the problem, saying it was
reported in Macau newspapers. She also, however, questioned
why the Mongolian NGOs had not consulted with local churches

HONG KONG 00004066 002 OF 003


or police. Ferreira noted that trafficking into Macau is not
criminalized; only trafficking out of Macau is covered by a
criminal statute. She implied the Macau Government was
hesitant to crack down on trafficking activities carried out
by organized crime interests.


6. (C) Ferreira closed by suggesting that high-level changes,
for example in international conventions or treaties related
to Macau, might best be sought in consultation with the
Government of the People's Republic of China.

Catholic Church and Police on the Beat
--------------


7. (C) Father Lancelot Rodrigues, Director of Catholic Social
Services - Macau, said he had "heard very little about
trafficking." Rodrigues provided Taylor with a copy of the
short 2005 annual report published by the Good Shepherd
Centre in Macau, which included statistics on local women "in
need of care or protection" as well as information on the
group's efforts to improve social workers' ability to deal
with cases of sexual violence against women. The report did
not go into great detail on categories of cases and did not
include a separately identified category for trafficking
victims.


8. (C) Ho Peng Nam, a Chief Senior Inspector in the Macau
Security Force whose portfolio includes the investigation of
immigration cases, said that many foreign workers first
arrived in Macau as tourists and then applied for a work
visa. He said that workers, after realizing the unexpected
or "coerced" circumstances under which they were employed,
often reported to the "complaint office" of the Labor
Department or Immigration Department. Ho said that
businesses complained to police about prostitutes loitering
on their premises, and that all complaints were pursued by
the police. While NGOs sometimes ask the Government for
assistance, Ho explained that the "social department,"
probably referring to the Macau SAR's Social Welfare Bureau,
only acted under guidance from the courts. He suggested we
attend the late October "Pacific Rim Conference" in Hong
Kong, stating that trafficking issues related to immigration
would likely arise.


9. (C) During a September 30 meeting, Sister Juliana Devoy
(strictly protect),the Director of the Good Shepherd Centre,
showed us several news clippings from the Chinese-language
"Macau Daily News" reporting on alleged trafficking cases. A
September 29 article reported a couple from Heilongjiang
Province had been arrested in the Lisboa Hotel on September
27 for battery and forcing two PRC girls to engage in
prostitution. One of the girls possessed forged mainland
travel documents and claimed she was beaten up after being
trafficked to Macau via Zhuhai and refusing to prostitute
herself; the paper did not detail the circumstances of the
second girl. Devoy said that Macau newspapers carried
"regular articles about prostitutes being beaten after being
reluctant to work," but often did not include many facts
about trafficking cases in Macau. She added that organized
crime groups were probably involved in many of these cases.
Catholic Social Services recently requested statistics on
domestic violence -- an issue given considerably greater
attention by Macau authorities -- from the Macau police, said
Devoy, and was surprised after getting an informative
response. Separately, she told Taylor that police had raided
a local hotel following complaints by the owner that a group
of Thai prostitutes regularly frequented his hotel. Devoy
also told us of her effort with Father Michael Sasso to start
a "helpline and public awareness campaign" for a mix of
social welfare issues, which included trafficking.


10. (C) Comment: The rapidly expanding economy and foreign
investment in Macau provide both a challenge and an
opportunity for anti-trafficking efforts. To date, the
forces involved in trafficking -- part of Macau's legacy as a
center for Chinese triads -- remain largely unchecked. Macau
is trying to overcome its formerly sleepy, laissez-faire
reputation and grow into a world-class entertainment and
tourism destination; this provides potential motivation for
the government to clean up the seamier sides of Macanese
society. Clearly, there is much work to be done against
trafficking there and Consulate General Hong Kong will
continue to press on the Macau government and work with
religious groups and NGOs to ensure that trafficking is

HONG KONG 00004066 003 OF 003


acknowledged and reduced and victims are cared for.


11. (SBU) G/TIP has cleared on this cable.
Cunningham