Prostitution is not illegal in Macau but crime is usually not far away

Prostitution may not be a crime in Macau but there is panoply of illegal activities connected to the sex industry. These range from simple forgery to human trafficking to exploitation by organised criminal gangs.

In May, the authorities discovered a gang that allegedly exploited prostitution. As a result, four men and 11 women, all from the mainland, were detained in a raid on a hotel in Taipa. Other suspects escaped arrest.

The group allegedly recruited women from across the border, helping them with the paperwork to come to work in Macau. The Judiciary Police say the gang provided the women with fake identity cards. The authorities believe the business turned over more than MOP400,000 (US$50,000).

Judiciary Police deputy director Chau Wai Kuong says that in 2009 the force detected 26 cases of crime related to the sex industry, such as falsification of identification and exploitation of prostitution. Last year there were 21 cases altogether, and in the first four months of this year there were just three.

According to a lawyer who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Macau has a “hypocritical” approach to crime related to prostitution, since only petty cases are prosecuted. Considering that exploitation of prostitutes is a crime, he says there is “blatant hypocrisy” since that is what often goes on in many saunas.

The lawyer says that before the 2008 law on human trafficking, sex workers often complained of being kept in sexual servitude, with their passports retained by sauna bosses. “They ended up always owing money to the agent,” he recalls.

The new law has made a difference, he says. “Now they come to Macau and they already know what they are going to do.”

Prostitution is not a crime, but soliciting is punishable with a MOP5,000 fine and, in the case of non-resident offenders, deportation. Pimping is also a crime. The penalty can be up to five years in prison.

The approach of the authorities reflects “a concern for fighting organised crime, instead of prostitution in itself,” explains lawyer Lei Wun Kong. Mr Lei says the law, which is quite clear, is not the problem. The problem, he says, is the way it is enforced.

Standing up in court

The ultimate purpose of trafficking in human beings is often sexual enslavement. However, the Judiciary Police deputy director offers assurances that many prostitutes come voluntarily to work in Macau, whether by their own devices or with the help of middlemen. “Human trafficking cases are not frequent,” Mr Chau says.

In 2006, in its maiden report on Macau, the United States State Department put the city on its blacklist for being potentially fertile territory for human trafficking. In 2008 the city was dropped from the list, after the authorities here argued for its removal.

Even so, the latest report by the State Department, released in June, lists Macau as a place that does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking.

Since 2008 the authorities here have detected 39 cases of human trafficking, involving 58 victims. However, many cases were shelved owing to lack of evidence. There are many difficulties in investigating such cases, the main one being the reluctance of victims and alleged perpetrators to cooperate “because the mastermind behind the syndicate would have told them not to talk,” Mr Chau says.

As for the involvement of triads, few cases make it as far as the courts.

“There was a case in 2009, in which we arrested six people, four local men, one Vietnamese girl and one local woman, and we were able to prosecute for organised crime,” Mr Chau says. “But the investigation is still ongoing.”

By Luciana leitão