KUALA LUMPUR: For your second year in a row, Malaysia is within the lowest tier position for not fully meeting the minimum criteria of eliminating individual trafficking here.
Based on the Trafficking within Persons Report Come july 1st 2022 (the United states, Department of State), Malaysia falls below Tier Three, joining 10 other nations in the world, which include Tiongkok and Myanmar.
The report stated that Malaysia will not fully meet the minimum standards for the reduction of trafficking and is not making substantial efforts to do so.
“Even considering the effect of the Covid-19 outbreak on its anti-trafficking capacity, Malaysia remains on Tier 3.
“Despite deficiency of significant efforts, the government took some procedure for address trafficking.
“The government amended its anti-trafficking law and Employment Action to include a more extensive definition of forced work.
“They (Malaysia) have convicted a lot more traffickers than the earlier reporting period and issued more freedom of movement goes by for identified victims in government-funded pet shelters.
“It has increased the number of interpreters and victim assistance experts (VAS) to assist sufferers through the judicial procedure and adopted a five-year national action plan (NAP) against pressured labour, ” the particular report said.
The report said however , as in earlier years, the government did not adequately address or even criminally pursue reputable allegations from several sources alleging work trafficking.
The report then listed 15 prioritised recommendations to the government, all of which were repetitions through previous reports.
The recommendations included the need to increase efforts to investigate, prosecute, plus convict more trafficking cases—as distinct from migrant smuggling—including those people involving complicit authorities and forced labour crimes.
“Effectively enforce the law barring employers from keeping passports without employees’ consent.
“Expand efforts to inform migrant workers of their rights and Malaysian work laws, including their own rights to maintain entry to their passports at any time, as well as opportunities regarding legal remedies to exploitation.
“Eliminate recruitment or positioning fees charged in order to workers by employers and ensure recruitment charges are paid by employers, ” the report further recommended.
The document added that the government did increase its law enforcement efforts with the Anti-Trafficking in People and Smuggling associated with Migrants (Atipsom) Function 2007 which criminalised labour trafficking and sex trafficking getting amended for the third time in December 2021 (which increased the particular penalties for some offences and expanded the meaning of trafficking to include other means).
“Nevertheless, officials failed to consistently understand the definition of trafficking.
“Prosecutors often interpreted the meaning of trafficking under Atipsom to require the physical restraint of a victim in order to pursue trafficking fees, which meant prosecutors did not pursue a lot of potential trafficking cases — especially in cases where coercion was obviously a primary element utilized by traffickers, ” this read.