(SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST) -- Hong Kong’s top court on Tuesday began hearing a landmark appeal on whether forced labour and human trafficking for that purpose should be criminalised in the city under a new offence.
Lawyers for a Pakistani victim of forced labour in Hong Kong, bringing the first such case to the city’s Court of Final Appeal, are calling for a bespoke offence in line with international standards to target the “evil” that has become “a colossal problem everywhere”.
But the government disagreed with the scale of the problem in the city and expressed concerns that extending criminal liability would create economic, social welfare and immigration consequences in light of Hong Kong’s unique position.
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