The government on Wednesday objected to a United States report on human trafficking, describing it as “biased and unfair”.

In the 2022 Trafficking Persons Report, the US State Department said the Hong Kong government “does not meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking”, and gave the SAR its second-worst “Tier 2 Watch List” rating.

It said authorities here “did not prosecute or convict any labour traffickers, and sentenced criminals convicted for crimes related to sex trafficking to inadequate penalties”.

The report added that despite the screening of thousands of vulnerable people for trafficking indicators, it identified only one victim.

In response, the government said in a statement that "trafficking in persons is never a prevalent problem in Hong Kong and there has never been any sign that Hong Kong is being actively used by syndicates as a destination or transit point for trafficking in persons.”

Authorities said they have been making proactive and multi-pronged efforts in the fight against human trafficking, and injected an enormous amount of resources to combat trafficking and to enhance the protection and well-being of foreign domestic helpers here.

The statement said that authorities here had maintained its anti-trafficking efforts despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years. It went on to point out that coverage of the initial screening of victims has been extended since the end of 2019 to cover all cases involving people vulnerable to trafficking risks, including illegal immigrants, sex workers, illegal workers, foreign domestic helpers and imported workers.

"Facts speak louder than words. Despite the intensified screening efforts, only a handful of trafficking-in-persons victims were identified. The very small number and percentage of victims identified thus far has once again reinforced our observation that trafficking in persons is never a prevalent problem in Hong Kong,” the government said.

“It is baseless and unfair to cast doubt on the quality of our screenings and discredit our screening procedure merely because of the low number of victims so identified,” it added.