Treating vulnerable migrants as criminals only leads to more exploitation, in Hong Kong and elsewhere
Jade Anderson says governments are failing victims of human trafficking and forced labour, as they try to adopt a tougher stance on asylum seekers
Damning reports leaked to The Guardian about the offshore processing centre the Australian government has supported in Nauru have not made much of a splash in Hong Kong. The reports lay bare the effects of indefinite detention on asylum seekers and refugees, in what are described as offshore immigration detention facilities. Physical, emotional and sexual abuse are widespread and systemic.
Australia criticised over ‘severe abuse, inhumane treatment’ of asylum seekers in Nauru
In the UK, a group of workers in a burger chain was asked to attend a training session which was actually a cover for an immigration raid. Migrants among them were taken aside and reportedly interrogated, some for hours. Some were deported the same day. This raid was one of several across London in which 35 workers were arrested because of their immigration status.
Both stories are examples of how governments are trying to show they can control migration by using criminal sanctions against certain types of migrants. Around the world, there is “rising public anxiety about migration” and “eroding public trust in the ability of government to manage it”, as migrant numbers are perceived to be growing and governments to be doing little to stop or control these “flows”.
Protesters free cockroaches at UK burger chain, enraged that it helped get its illegal workers arrested
Much of the Australian government’s response to asylum seekers has been framed as a response to the perceived dangers of the increasing numbers attempting to enter the country by boat and to show that it is intent on controlling and managing migration.
Victims of trafficking or forced labour are unlikely to come forward when they are afraid of being treated like criminals
In the UK, similarly, much of the response to migration, and migrant workers, has been framed as the need to control borders. Indeed, much of the Brexit campaign was fought around migration control. In response, we are seeing “the use of criminal justice systems or penalties to manage or control migration”.
This is also the case in Hong Kong, where there is growing unease among some about particular migrants. This year has seen a dramatic increase in the number of press releases from the Hong Kong government mentioning migrants. While in 2014 there were 24, there have been 50 in the first half of this year alone. In recent months, the government has publicised a series of operations to “combat illegal employment activities”, all involving migrants of some form.
Hong Kong Immigration Department crackdown nets 17 illegal workers and 8 employers
For example, this month, the government revealed that operation “Windsand” has led to the arrest of 2,921 migrants since September 2012, with 231 prosecuted for breach of conditions of stay and the rest repatriated. Other press releases this month announced three “illegal workers” from Vietnam had been jailed after another “anti-illegal-employment” operation, while “two Pakistani illegal workers” were jailed in yet another. The press releases reveal little other than the nationalities of those involved and the reason for their illegality. Some are “illegal” because they are in Hong Kong and some are “illegal” because they are working, but all of them are migrants and all are working.