KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia is now ranked among the 17 countries listed in the lowest tier of the United States’ annual human trafficking report.
The US State Department listed the country along with the likes of North Korea, China, Myanmar and Venezuela in its 2021 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report released early this morning Malaysian time and early yesterday evening in the US.
Among the key reasons the country has been downgraded stemmed from the fact that Putrajaya has not fully met the minimum conditions of eliminating trafficking, as well as a failure to make substantial strides to correct previous mistakes.
“The government of Malaysia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, even considering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity, therefore Malaysia was downgraded to Tier 3,” the report read.
Other countries in the bottom tier include Afghanistan, Algeria, Comoros, Cuba, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, and Turkmenistan.
However, the study acknowledged that despite the “lack of significant efforts”, Malaysia did take some steps to address human trafficking.
“The government prosecuted and convicted some traffickers, adopted victim identification standard operating procedures (SOPs), continued to identify and provide some protection services to trafficking victims, and publicly released the results of a survey it funded on the prevalence of forced and child labour in the palm oil sector.”
Palm oil, rubber industries identified as problem sectors
However, the issue is that the government continued to “conflate human trafficking and migrant smuggling crimes” while failing to adequately address or pursue credible allegations from multiple sources alleging labour trafficking – including in the rubber industry and palm oil sectors.
The report then noted that the Malaysian government owns 33% of the third-largest palm oil company in the world.
Another sector facing serious complaints involves the rubber manufacturing sector – particularly the rubber gloves industry where Putrajaya failed to adequately investigate or prosecute rubber glove manufacturing companies as human traffickers.
“During the reporting period, the Labour Department initiated 57 investigations against employers in the rubber-product manufacturing sector to confirm compliance with housing laws, but it did not investigate these allegations as potential trafficking crimes.
“In December 2020, the government filed 19 charges against a disposable glove manufacturing company under the Workers’ Minimum Standards of Housing and Amenities Act (Act 226) for inhumane living conditions in migrant workers’ dormitories.
“The government also filed 30 charges against another rubber glove manufacturer following a series of raids where labour inspectors discovered more than 200 foreign workers living in inhumane and unsanitary conditions.
“However, the government did not report investigating or prosecuting these companies for human trafficking crimes despite credible evidence of debt-based coercion,” said the report.
Last year, Malaysian company Top Glove, which is the world’s largest producer of medical gloves, was slapped with a ban by US authorities. Washington had accused the company of mistreating its migrant workers – letting them live in harsh and inhumane living conditions.
The global rubber glove giant’s treatment of its workers was revealed during the Covid-19 pandemic after a series of its employees across four factories had tested positive for the virus.
Currently, Top Glove is waiting for US Customs and Border Protection to verify the remedial actions that it has taken regarding care for its workers.
Better system to protect victims, more interagency coordination needed
Other issues raised in the document include the fact that the Malaysian government continues to rely on victims to “self-identify” while not implementing SOPs that proactively identify victims during law enforcement raids or among vulnerable populations that come into contact with the authorities.
Therefore, it found that authorities continued to “inappropriately penalise victims for immigration and prostitution violations”.
It recommended that the government train or provide SOPs to enable enforcement officers to identify trafficking victims.
“Insufficient inter-agency coordination and inadequate victim services, which discouraged foreign victims from remaining in Malaysia to participate in criminal proceedings, continued to hinder successful law enforcement efforts to prosecute traffickers,” the report said.
It observed that there is a lack of prosecution or conviction of officials allegedly complicit in related crimes, despite ongoing concerns of corruption facilitating trafficking activities.
Make public investigations involving corrupt officials
The 2021 TIP report also prepared a lengthy list of recommendations for Putrajaya which includes ramping up efforts to identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations such as household workers and oil palm plantation workers.
Likewise, it recommended increasing the prosecution and conviction of trafficking cases.
The US State Department’s report similarly advised the Malaysian government to make public the results of investigations involving corrupt officials to increase transparency, while acting as a deterrence on law violations.
It said the government should also expand labour protections for domestic workers and investigate allegations of domestic worker abuse while taking steps to eliminate recruitment or placement fees charged to workers by recruiters and ensure recruitment fees are paid by employers.
Furthermore, the report suggested that authorities should increase the number of trafficking victims who had obtained approval allowing them freedom of movement from their shelters.
It further proposed that these individuals are granted greater freedom of movement including not being chaperoned while they are out and about, as well as providing victims access to communication with people outside shelters – including phone calls.
The report also urged Malaysia to effectively enforce laws prohibiting employers from withholding passports without employees’ consent.
This year’s annual report was launched by Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a televised official ceremony in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the US State Department’s headquarters. – The Vibes, July 2, 2021
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