| MALAYSIA is still a destination and, to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for women and children trafficked as sex slaves. |
If it is not sex, then it is forced labour and even slavery too of men, women and children.
In the just released global assessment Trafficking in Persons Report 2008 of the US Department of State, Malaysia is among 40 countries that have been placed on a Tier 2 Special Watch List of countries.
These countries are under scrutiny for sex trafficking — by force, fraud and coercion — and the treatment of migrant labour subjected to “involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery”.
The bit of good news is that Malaysia’s record has improved slightly, as in the 2007 report Malaysia was in the worst category, Tier 3.
“Concrete steps still need to be taken to address both sex trafficking and labour trafficking,” said National Human Rights Society (Hakam) executive committee member Alice Nah, who is also co-coordinator of the Migration Working Group, a network of civil society groups lobbying for the protection of migrants, refugees and stateless persons.
Nah said the reason for Malaysia moving up a notch to the second tier was most likely because of the recently enacted Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act 2007.
“While this is definitely a positive step forward, realities on the ground have not changed significantly. In fact, some Malaysian government policies and practices still contribute directly to human trafficking,” she alleged.
“For example, the Malaysian government continues to arrest, detain and deport asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons from Myanmar. Deportees tell us that the authorities hand them over to smugglers or traffickers at the Malaysia-Thai border, who force them to pay between RM1,400 and RM2,500 for their release and return to Malaysia.” Apparently, the men who are unable to pay are sold to work on deep sea fishing boats while the women are sold to brothels.
Nah said there was also a high incidence of migrant workers caught in work situations that are very different from what they were promised in their home countries.
“They are cheated and exploited, but then find it almost impossible to seek redress. They are often forced to work in order to pay off debts incurred because of exorbitant recruitment fees. This constitutes bonded labour,” she explained.
In the introduction to the report, the first mention of Malaysia is in a boxed story that reads: “’It’s like I’m out of hell,’ proclaimed Indonesian worker Arum after his experience in Malaysia. He spent seven months on a rubber plantation working 13 hours a day, seven days a week without pay, until he escaped — only to be arrested, imprisoned, flogged, and deported.” While stating that the Malaysian government is making significant efforts, the global assessment Trafficking in Persons Report 2008 states that it does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.
“Malaysia is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts from the previous year to tackle its large and multi-dimensional trafficking problem, including its forced labour problem.” While the migrant workers come willingly into the country, some are subsequently subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude by Malaysian employers in the domestic, agricultural, construction, plantation, and industrial sectors, the report stated.
“Some migrant workers are victimised by their employers, employment agents, or traffickers that supply migrant labourers and victims of sex trafficking. Victims suffer conditions including physical and sexual abuse, debt bondage, non-payment of wages, threats, confinement, and withholding of travel documents to restrict their freedom of movement.
“In addition, some female domestics from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, Mongolia, and China are forced into commercial sexual exploitation after being deceived with promises of jobs or after running away from abusive employers.” Individual employment agents apparently sold women and girls into brothels, karaoke bars, or passed them to sex traffickers.
Some Myanmar nationals registered with the United Nations as refugees, a status not recognised by the Malaysian government, are vulnerable to being trafficked for forced labour.
To a lesser extent, some Malaysian women, primarily of Chinese ethnicity, are trafficked abroad for prostitution.
While the government had commendably enacted comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation in July 2007, it completed development of implementing guidelines, training of key law enforcement and social service officers, and issued legislative supplements to bring the law fully into force in late February 2008.
However, the report stated that no action had yet been taken against exploitative employers or labour traffickers during the reporting period and neither had the government widely implemented mechanisms to screen victims of trafficking from vulnerable groups.
An interagency National Council for Anti-Trafficking in Persons, that includes representatives from civil society, had drafted a national action plan, and in March this year, Women, Family, and Community Development Ministry opened two trafficking victims’ shelters and began assisting foreign victims of sex trafficking.
However, Nah said, requests to visit these shelters had yet to materialise.
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