HK authorities go to Thailand to rescue victims of human trafficking

Fraudulent areas in Myanmar are becoming more and more rampant, making it the worst place in the world for human trafficking. Every year, about 100,000 people from China are abducted to Myawaddy and other places in Burma to engage in illegal activities such as telecom fraud, and many of these "piglets (victims of human-trafficking scandal)" are trafficked to Burma through Thailand by illegal intermediaries.

On the afternoon of Jan. 12, officials of the Security Bureau led members of the task force from the Hong Kong Police Force and the Immigration Department to Thailand to follow up cases of Hong Kong people being detained for engaging in illegal employment.

Michael Cheuk Hau-yip said the ultimate goal of the operation is for all Hong Kong people to return to Hong Kong safely.

Cheuk said that the police and the Immigration Department had contacted most of the victims, and it was up to the individuals to decide whether to contact their families. He emphasized that the incident is not just a case of "fraud", but "abduction", which is classified as "illegal human trafficking" by Thailand.

From 2022 to early 2023, the police received 46 requests for assistance from Hong Kong people, most of whom were lured to work in Southeast Asia with the offers of "good pay", "no experience required" and other means, and then taken to the so-called "parks" in Myanmar and Cambodia to engage in illegal activities. Among them, 43 were successfully rescued and returned to Hong Kong, while the remaining three indicated that they did not need to be followed up after being rescued.

According to the Security Bureau, it has all along attached great importance to cases of Hong Kong people suspected to have been lured to Southeast Asian countries and detained in Southeast Asian countries for engaging in illegal employment, and has set up a task force in August 2022 to coordinate the follow-up work of the relevant law enforcement departments.

Starting from mid-2024, the Police received a new batch of reports, some of which were lured by methods such as "high salary and standard pay", and there were also new fraudulent methods, for example, the victims were initially told to go to Japan and Taiwan to purchase goods on behalf of the victims, but changed to go to Southeast Asia in the last minute, which involved 28 cases of Hong Kong people seeking assistance, among which 16 of them returned to Hong Kong safely, and the remaining 7 men and 5 women are still in that place. The last contact confirmed their safety, but their freedom of movement had been threatened or restricted. Given the latest developments, the Police considered that a meeting with the Thai authorities would be helpful.

Cheuk said that Hong Kong has issued a yellow travel alert for the situation in the border areas of the countries concerned, and he called on Hong Kong people to be more vigilant. Some victims said that they had been touted through social media and instant messaging apps and abducted under pre-arranged arrangements, but for the time being no one has said that they have been abducted during their travels. However, he also reminded the public not to travel to chaotic areas such as the border.

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