In November 2013, I attended a regional women lawyers’ summit in Hong Kong on ending human trafficking, where I gave a presentation on Macau’s anti-trafficking law. The organisers of the conference invited the secretary for security to give the opening address, but after his speech he left and didn’t stay to learn anything. That has consistently been the attitude of the Hong Kong government – it is not easy for them to be open to learning something new.

Legislator and lawyers push for bill against human trafficking in Hong Kong

After reading Mr Bishop’s article, I have hope for a breakthrough. Because I lived in Hong Kong for 25 years, I know that historically the initial response of the government to any social issue, like when people wanted to start ACA (Against Child Abuse), was: “Hong Kong doesn’t have that problem”. So the title of Mr Bishop’s article may be prophetic.