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MALAYSIA: Blacklisted For Not Enforcing Trafficking Laws

Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 23 2009 (IPS) - After years of lobbying by rights activists and the international community, Malaysia passed an effective and comprehensive law in 2007 against human trafficking with provisions for protection, shelter and return of trafficked person to their home countries.

That law earned international praise and saw Malaysia upgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 2 in the 2007 annual list of trafficking offenders maintained by the United States State Department.

But now, two years later the State Department, in its annual ‘Trafficking in Persons Report 2009,’ has Malaysia back on the Tier 3 blacklist with 16 other countries – a shocking reversal for the authorities here.

The report evaluates steps taken in over 170 countries to combat trafficking for forced labour, prostitution, military service and other purposes.

Malaysia joins other blacklisted countries, including Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

The downgrade has shocked authorities who had believed that by passing the Anti-Human Trafficking Law, and sitting on it, they could escape international attention.

The country, which is the largest employer of migrant labour in Asia, comes into constant scrutiny for its often-horrendous human rights record with regard to abuse and exploitation of migrant workers.

Moving Malaysia back to Tier 3 is the price the country paid for its complacency, ignorance and arrogance, said Irene Fernandez, executive director of Tenaganita, a prominent rights organisation for migrant workers.

“It is a major slap in the face for Malaysia,” Fernandez told IPS. “Our poor rights record with migrant workers and trafficked person is widely known and internationally condemned.”

“The authorities must step out of their complacency and take urgent measures to improve their record,” she said blaming “official arrogance” as a key reason for the “state of denial” that afflicts officials.

“This is the crux of the problem. There is no commitment to tackle and improve conditions,” Fernandez said urging the authorities to give the report their “highest priority” because its findings are internationally recognised and accepted.

Malaysia is the one of five Asian nations on the blacklist – the others are Burma, Fiji, North Korea and Papua New Guinea.

“Malaysia is a destination and, to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for women and children trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation; and for men, women, and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labour,” said the report released by the State Department this month.

“Malaysia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, despite some progress in enforcing the country’s new anti-trafficking law,” the report said.

It said that while the government took initial actions under the 2007 anti- trafficking law against sex trafficking, it has failed to fully address issues of human trafficking.

The details of the reason for the downgrade can be found in a damning report by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee released in April, which said Malaysian Immigration Department officials were involved in trafficking Burmese refugees arriving in Malaysia into Thailand.

The report stated that the officials sold refugees – including Muslim Rohingyas – for approximately 200 dollars per person to traffickers operating along Malaysia’s southern border with Thailand. It said the traffickers then demanded ransom for their release from their families back in Myanmar. Those who failed to raise the ransom were sold for purpose of labour and as sex workers.

Malaysia had promised an in-depth investigation into these allegations by the U.S. Committee, but within days announced that there was no truth to the allegations.

Opposition lawmakers also raised the matter in parliament, but to date no official has been arrested, prosecuted, or convicted for alleged involvement in human trafficking.

It is common knowledge that migrant workers especially undocumented Asians are badly treated by employers and enforcement officials, and by the voluntary outfit called RELA, whose 500,000 untrained but armed members are often used in anti-migrant worker operations.

These undocumented people are often at the mercy of employers, employment agents, officials and traffickers. Victims suffer physical and sexual abuse, debt bondage, non-payment of wages, threats, confinement, and withholding of travel documents, said Fernandez.

Women from Burma, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are regularly trafficked into the country and forced into prostitution.

The 2009 State Department report concluded: “As a regional economic leader approaching developed nation status, Malaysia has the resources and government infrastructure to do more in addressing trafficking in persons.”

Countries on the Tier 3 blacklist could face U.S. sanctions – including the withholding of non-humanitarian, non-trade related foreign aid.

They would also be subject to withholding of funding for government officials to participate in educational and cultural exchange programs.

The report’s conclusion is also disputed by officials and others here.

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, or Suhakam, said that the 2009 report “should have been more balanced and factual, and not merely fault finding.”

“Trafficking is a complex issue, and apprehending criminals involved in trafficking is not an easy task. We have an adequate law to combat trafficking but changes cannot be expected at once,” said Suhakam commissioner Raj Abdul Karim.

“The implementation of the law and efforts to combat trafficking take time to yield the expected results,” Karim said in a statement.

Malaysia’s Deputy Home Minister Abu Seman Yusop also told parliament the downgrading to Tier 3 was “unfair” because the authorities were already doing their best to curb trafficking.

“We don’t condone human trafficking and have taken stern actions to deal with the problem, including enacting an anti-human trafficking law in 2007, and setting up a special task force,” he said.

However U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia James R. Keith, in comments to local media, said that while Malaysia does have “comprehensive laws to deal with human trafficking” enforcement and conviction of offenders were urgently missing.

Keith stressed, Malaysia needs to deter traffickers with arrest, court charges and convictions. “That makes people realise that the government is serious,” he said. “That’s the bottom line.”