The U.S. State Department’s 2025 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report has found that Hong Kong has not fully met minimum international standards for combating human trafficking, recording no significant progress compared with last year. The city has been placed on the Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year, alongside countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Iran.
Under the TIP ranking system, nations and regions are grouped into four categories: Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watch List and Tier 3. Remaining in Tier 2 Watch List reflects concerns that while Hong Kong has taken some steps to identify possible trafficking victims, efforts remain largely insufficient.
According to the report, Hong Kong authorities screened 11,294 individuals for trafficking risks in the past year, yet only eight victims were officially identified, one forced into sex work and seven linked to Southeast Asian recruitment scams. Despite migrant domestic workers being regarded globally as a high-risk group, the government did not identify a single victim among the nearly 400,000 foreign domestic workers in the city, suggesting systemic gaps in protection.
The report criticises Hong Kong’s lack of stand-alone anti-trafficking legislation, noting that enforcement instead relies on offences relating to prostitution, illegal entry or bodily harm. This fragmented approach, it says, undermines investigations and prosecutions. In cases with clear trafficking indicators, inquiries were often dropped at an early stage and victims were left without adequate safeguards.
Concerns were also raised over the vulnerability of migrant domestic workers, the majority of whom come from the Philippines and Indonesia. Although agencies may only legally charge 10% of a worker’s first-month salary in placement fees, lax enforcement has allowed some agencies to impose fees equivalent to most of a year’s income, trapping workers in debt. Some employers or agencies reportedly confiscate passports and employment contracts until debts are repaid.
Reports from rights groups detail extreme working hours, up to 17 hours a day, poor living conditions, denial of rest days, verbal and physical abuse, and, in some cases, sexual assault. Some migrant workers have also been coerced into illegal sex work. Police arrested 41 employers last year for abuse or sexual assault, yet investigators did not assess whether these cases involved trafficking, and the victims were not treated as potential trafficking survivors.
The report further criticises Hong Kong’s “two-week rule”, which requires domestic workers to leave the city within 14 days after a contract ends and the mandatory live-in requirement, saying they increase workers’ dependence and exposure to exploitation while limiting mobility and communication. The U.S. recommends that Hong Kong abolish the two-week rule, eliminate agency fees, allow workers to choose their own accommodation, and introduce working hour limits to prevent deepening systemic abuse.