Human trafficking: Malaysia remains on US's Tier 2 watch list
| Harakahdaily, | 21 June 2012 |
Jun 21: The US State Department has placed Malaysia on its Tier 2 human trafficking watch list, citing its continued poor treatment of foreign victims by confining them to substandard facilities despite its written plan for a solution which had granted the country a waiver.
The US government's annual Trafficking in Persons Report classified countries according to several tiers, with Tier 1 consisting of countries whose governments fully comply with minimum standards required by the US's Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Tier 2 groups countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, while the Tier 2 'watch list' is for countries in which victims of severe forms of trafficking is significantly increasing and where there is no evidence of efforts to combat human trafficking. A third tier is for government who do not fully comply with the minimum standards and not making efforts to do so.
In its 2012 report, the State Department said Malaysia was granted a waiver "from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3" due to its commitment through a written plan for the elimination of trafficking.
But it added that the Malaysian government continued to confine foreign victims to substandard facilities and failed to provide them with sufficient legal, translation, or psychological resources, including denying victims to live outside the facilities.
"Malaysia’s anti-trafficking law does not include adequate provisions for the protection of victims, and the government did not take steps to amend its laws to allow certified victims to reside outside government facilities," it noted.
It said there had been insufficient progress in addressing human trafficking.
"While it continued to prosecute and convict sex trafficking offenders, it did not demonstrate progress in its efforts to punish those who exploit others for forced labor," it added.
The report also cited a case filed in November last year against three proprietors of a media company for subjecting five Indian nationals to forced labor distributing and selling newspapers.
"Initially, the victims – whose documents had been confiscated by their employer – were arrested on immigration violations and the employers were not charged. Following pressure from civil society, the Labor Department subsequently made the decision to investigate the case; the prosecution of the three traffickers remained ongoing at the close of the reporting period," the report said.
The US government's annual Trafficking in Persons Report classified countries according to several tiers, with Tier 1 consisting of countries whose governments fully comply with minimum standards required by the US's Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Tier 2 groups countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, while the Tier 2 'watch list' is for countries in which victims of severe forms of trafficking is significantly increasing and where there is no evidence of efforts to combat human trafficking. A third tier is for government who do not fully comply with the minimum standards and not making efforts to do so.
In its 2012 report, the State Department said Malaysia was granted a waiver "from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3" due to its commitment through a written plan for the elimination of trafficking.
But it added that the Malaysian government continued to confine foreign victims to substandard facilities and failed to provide them with sufficient legal, translation, or psychological resources, including denying victims to live outside the facilities.
"Malaysia’s anti-trafficking law does not include adequate provisions for the protection of victims, and the government did not take steps to amend its laws to allow certified victims to reside outside government facilities," it noted.
It said there had been insufficient progress in addressing human trafficking.
"While it continued to prosecute and convict sex trafficking offenders, it did not demonstrate progress in its efforts to punish those who exploit others for forced labor," it added.
The report also cited a case filed in November last year against three proprietors of a media company for subjecting five Indian nationals to forced labor distributing and selling newspapers.
"Initially, the victims – whose documents had been confiscated by their employer – were arrested on immigration violations and the employers were not charged. Following pressure from civil society, the Labor Department subsequently made the decision to investigate the case; the prosecution of the three traffickers remained ongoing at the close of the reporting period," the report said.
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