Hong Kong has rejected the United States’ decision to place it in the lowest category of its annual human trafficking report, calling the assessment “entirely unfounded” and accusing Washington of applying double standards in evaluating the city’s efforts to combat trafficking. The US State Department’s 2026 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, released on October 8, downgraded Hong Kong to Tier 3 from the Tier 2 Watch List, where it had remained for two consecutive years. The lowest tier includes mainland China, Macau, North Korea, Russia, Iran and Afghanistan.
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