The latest US Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report was released mid-last week on the heels of yet another devastating news of migrants dying in our shores because of abuses and mistreatments.
The latest TIP report showed that there was no improvement in Malaysia’s position in regards to fighting and eliminating human trafficking. We are now second consecutive year in Tier 2 Watch List. (Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/07/02/msia-on-us-human-trafficking-watchlist-for-the-second-year/)
While this is above the lowest band of Tier 3, it is below Tier 2 and denotes “Countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to meet those standards AND:
- The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing;
- There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year, including increased investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of trafficking crimes, increased assistance to victims, and decreasing evidence of complicity in severe forms of trafficking by government officials; or
- The determination that a country is making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.”
Just slightly more than two weeks before the report, the Nepali government said that there were 461 deaths of Nepali workers in Malaysia last year, 32% up from 348 deaths in 2014. This makes a horrifying average of nine deaths weekly; there are more Nepali workers death in Malaysia than days in a week!
An International Labour Organisation (ILO) report showed that the Nepali deaths were due to “poor working conditions, high-level of occupational stress and lack of adequate medical care.” (Source: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—asia/—ro-bangkok/documents/publication/wcms_447687.pdf)
The Nepali Ambassador to Malaysia Dr. Niranjan Man Singh Basnyat was reported as saying that Nepali had to work up to 12 hours a day mostly under hot sun, while “30% [of the deaths] was due to fatal accidents at workplace, consuming too much alcoholic drinks while a few had committed suicide due to monetary reasons.” (Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/06/12/most-deaths-of-nepalese-workers-in-malaysia-due-to-cardiac-arrest-says-ambassador/)
While these Nepali workers are legal migrants, the condition of workers like them are sometimes as dire as those without documents or worse, victims of trafficking. The TIP reports through the years have highlighted plights of legal migrant workers in Malaysia who are “subjected to forced labor or debt bondage by their employers, employment agents, or informal labor recruiters…have heightened vulnerabilities to exploitive labor conditions and reduced ability to resolve disputes.”. In fact, due to these and other abuses, source countries in the region such as Cambodia and Indonesia had at one time imposed moratorium on their citizens being recruited as domestic helpers in Malaysia.
Malaysia in the TIP reports
Malaysia’s human trafficking crisis is not new.
We started with the lowest rating at Tier 3 in the inaugural TIP report in 2001. In the 16 years, we were ranked Tier 3 four times the last being just two years ago in 2014. When an additional tier, Tier 2 Watch List was established in 2006, we dropped from Tier 2 to the Tier 2 Watch List.
From 2010 to 2013, Malaysia was even granted waiver from being downgraded to Tier 3 every year on the ground of commitments made by the government to improve things substantially. When improvement failed to materialise after four years, we were downgraded to Tier 3 in 2014.
The chronology of Malaysia in the TIP report reads almost like a cat and mouse chase. When the cat comes close, the mouse retreats a little bit, but the chase is frustratingly never ending. It was as if to “please the Americans” that our government pays lip service to fighting human trafficking but after 16 years rated badly on the chart, we barely scratched the surface to deal with this hideousness crime.
Look at the way our Anti Trafficking in Persons Act was created and then amended. In 2007, when we dropped to Tier 3, the Act was enacted by Parliament.
Within two years, in 2009, we were downgraded to Tier 3 again. Hence, Parliament once again amended the Act now expanding it to the Anti Trafficking in Persons and Anti Smuggling of Migrants Act 2010. We improved to Tier 2 Watch List and was subsequently given waiver for four years from being downgraded on the promise by the government that they will get their act together.
Four years later in 2014, we were once again in Tier 3, and thus, launching once again the whole “we-are-now-at-Tier-3-so-let’s-amend-the-Act” theatrics in Parliament in 2015.
| Year | Tier | Significant reforms/failures by federal govt |
| 2001 | Tier 3 | Interagency task force established; no anti trafficking laws |
| 2002 | Tier 2 | No anti trafficking laws |
| 2003 | Tier 2 | No anti trafficking laws |
| 2004 | Tier 2 | Amendment to Anti Money Laundering Act which allows seizure of trafficking activities; announce establishment of shelter for victims; no anti trafficking laws |
| 2005 | Tier 2 | National action plan published; no anti trafficking laws |
| 2006 | Tier 2 WL | Shelter for victims failed to set-up; state persecution of victims; failure to implement action plan |
| 2007 | Tier 3 | New Anti Trafficking in Persons Act 2007; 2006 MoU with Indonesia allowed confiscation/withholding of migrant workers passport; overall lack of action even though announcements of reforms made |
| 2008 | Tier 2 WL | National Council for Anti-Trafficking in Persons established; two shelters for victims finally opened after 4 years |
| 2009 | Tier 3 | US Senate Foreign Relations Committee report on involvement immigration authorities in trafficking activities |
| 2010 | Tier 2 WL | Five immigration officials arrested in light of US Senate report; expanded Anti Trafficking in Persons and Anti Smuggling of Migrants Act 2010; involvement of insiders not resolved; collusion with police noted; business model of importing migrant workers anti-human rights and questionable; state persecution of victims (e.g. RELA) |
| 2011 | Tier 2 WL | Increased prosecution under Anti Trafficking in Persons and Anti Smuggling of Migrants Act |
| 2012 | Tier 2 WL | 3 consecutive years in Tier 2 WL and granted a waiver from required downgrade to Tier 3 due to commitment on an action plan |
| 2013 | Tier 2 WL | New policy imposed burden of govt fee/levy on migrant workers; granted further waiver from downgrade |
| 2014 | Tier 3 | Refugees vulnerability; increased number of Malaysian women trafficked overseas in sex trade |
| 2015 | Tier 2 WL | New amendment to Anti Trafficking in Persons and Anti Smuggling of Migrants Act 2010 announced |
| 2016 | Tier 2 WL | Anti trafficking police forced strengthened; new job placement initiatives for victims; corruption in immigration and police; discoveries of migrant camps and mass graves, 150,000 refugees/asylum seekers lack status |
Table 1: History of Malaysia’s performance in the US Dept of State Trafficking in Persons Report (Source: US Dept of State TIP Report 2001-2016)
Don’t just “please the Americans”, deal decisively with the “insider syndicate”
It is fruitless to merely do a cosmetic makeover to “please the Americans”. (The caveat to this statement is; the TIP report is a commendable and excellent effort spearheaded by the US government)
In my parliamentary debate speech on the amendments to the Anti Trafficking in Persons and Anti Smuggling of Migrants Act in 2015, I called on the government to deal decisively to quash the “insider syndicate” in order to end human trafficking in Malaysia.
In 2009, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee published a shocking report on the involvement of “insider” in human trafficking activities in Malaysia. The report alleged “Malaysian government officials” as being involved in the “trafficking and extortion of Burmese and other migrants in Malaysia and from Malaysia into Thailand for personal profit”. The report referred to these government officials as, RELA voluntary corp, immigration and police officers. (Source: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CPRT-111SPRT48323/html/CPRT-111SPRT48323.htm)
In 2015, the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Noor Rashid Ibrahim was reported by the media as saying, the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) did not rule out the possibility of “insider” involvement in the intricate network of human trafficking and human smuggling in the Malaysia-Thai border. (Source: http://www.hmetro.com.my/node/50565)
Last year, the New Straits Times also exposed a report by the Special Branch of the RMP stating 80% of our border guards are “on the take”. (Source: http://www.nst.com.my/news/2015/09/exclusive-80pc-enforcers-manning-borders-take).
We are not only talking about border guards in some obscure jungle posts along our national borders.
In May 2016, two Malaysian immigration officers were among those arrested for being part of a forged passport syndicate. (Source: http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/05/144707/two-immigration-officers-among-19-held-alleged-involvement-passport-forgery)
In May 2016, over 100 people within the Immigration Department mostly stationed in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) were implicated for sabotaging the MyImms computerised immigration management system to facilitate various violations of immigration laws. 15 were sacked while 14 were suspended with various actions taken against the others. On the admission of the Director General of the department, this insider syndicate has been in operation since 16 years ago. (Source: http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1821106)
In June 2016, three immigration officers stationed in the southern Malaysia Johor-Singapore checkpoint were arrested for being part of a syndicate which facilitates an inter-state vice ring between the two neighbouring countries.
(Source: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2016/06/29/rogue-immigration-officers-arrested/)
I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg.
In 2014, I have raised the question on how the NERS system, another immigration management system, has been compromised. I have highlighted discrepancies where either the NERS private contractor was overpaid RM35.9 million in 2013 or, what is scarier, at least 718,000 migrants were let in without proper immigration record.
The government has thus far refused to respond to questions raised by MPs on this issue.
Both the MyImms and the NERS system were awarded without open tender to private contractors. This itself points to another big can of worms, the Migrant Industrial Complex. I have earlier argued that the business of importing, registering and renewing of migrants especially workers, rakes in billions of ringgit each year for a handful of private contractors closely-linked to the ruling regime. Due to the lucrative profit, national interest and security and human rights were set aside.
Conviction rate and sentences do not commensurate with the gravity of the crisis
Despite the massive network of insider syndicate making upto a billion ringgit from human trafficking activities over more than a decade (Source: http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1821106), with law enforcers and deputised citizen corp being implicated in domestic and international investigations, discovery of death camps and mass graves in our northern border, conviction has been very slow.
Over a period of almost ten years from when the first anti-human trafficking law was enacted, while there were thousands of files opened and investigated, only 75 traffickers were actually convicted in the Malaysian courts.
Despite repeated reports of insider involvement, and news report of immigration officers and police officers being arrested – most notably, 12 police officers arrested in connection to the discovery of mass grave in Perlis in 2015 – we do not know if any of these “insiders” were convicted.
While about 100 immigration officers were implicated in the MyIMMs case, with 15 sacked and 14 suspended, only 12 were arrested so far. The rest are presumably still in employment. (Source: http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1842376)
Even when there is a conviction, “the majority of sentences were weak and incommensurate with those prescribed for other serious offenses, including a trafficker who was administered one day in prison plus a fine of RM20,000, and three others who given sentences of one to three and one-half years’ imprisonment”. (Source: http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2016/258814.htm)
| Year | Number of convictions | Types of conviction |
| 2008 | 1 | Sex trafficking, first to be persecuted under the 2007 Act |
| 2009 | 3 | Information unavailable |
| 2010 | 14 | 11 sexual trafficking, 3 labour trafficking |
| 2011 | 17 | Sex trafficking |
| 2012 | 21 | 11 sex trafficking, 10 labour trafficking |
| 2013 | 9 | 5 sex trafficking, 4 labour trafficking |
| 2014 | 3 | 3 labour trafficking |
| 2015 | 7 | 5 for sex trafficking, 2 for labour trafficking |
Table 2: Number of human trafficking related convictions in Malaysia from 2008-2015 and types of conviction. (Source: US Dept State TIP Report 2008-2016)
Policy solution on migrants must not victimise migrants
Human trafficking is a horrible crime, a modern day slavery. It must and can be stopped at all cost.
The most recent experience Malaysians had was the images of over 10,000 Rohingya boat people stranded just outside our waters a year ago. Indeed it was heartwrenching seeing the images and knowing that these refugees had braved dangerous waters risking their lives in order to preserve them in a foreign country.
Over a thousand of these refugees were then granted permission to land and were housed in a detention centre in Kedah. My colleagues and I visited them but were disallowed entry into the centre. 371 of them eventually received refugee status by UNHCR, but in Malaysia, besides a lower risk of deportation, such status almost means nothing with the constant bullying and oppression, sometimes by state authorities. More than 300 are still stranded in the detention centre even after one year. (Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/05/27/rohingya-resettled-america/)
Yet these are already the “fortunate” ones. There are others, possibly tens of thousands who are scattered camps in the jungle, imprisoned in our cities and towns, subjected to torture and abuses, women and children being sold as sex workers. Or consider legal migrant workers thrown into debt bondage, forced to work in harsh condition, denied of their freedom. Or simply the “stares” migrants had to endure as they go into town for the weekend recreation.
According to statistics, Malaysia is now host to about 2 million documented migrant workers. Undocumented ones, including refugees and asylum seekers are estimated to be another 2-3 million persons. Together, these migrants make up about 16% of our total population. That is more than the Indian, Kadazan and Iban population in this country put together.
I have elsewhere written about our disorganised, haphazard, random and senseless migrant workers policy. I will not touch on this here.
But to imagine that at least 1 in 10 persons in Malaysia is an undocumented migrant.
It is understandable that Malaysians are worried about the influx of foreigners. It is also understandable that some of us may even exhibit xenophobic sentiments against them – given that Malaysians are already heavily taxed in all sorts of ways by a corrupt and incompetent government, why should we be accommodating foreigners?
But the truth is, human rights aside, we already have migrants here. 1 in 10, but almost 2 in 10 if we include the documented ones. Because there is no institutionalised solution to deal with their presence – especially the undocumented ones – they all go underground. When they do, they are exploited. So, for example, we read news of dead bodies, wrapped up and left on the streets; simply because these people have no legal status and dared not seek proper medical attention when sick. Estates and farms are hiring illegal migrants and sometimes refugees to work with low pay and horrible working condition. As I have made clear throughout this article, the oppressors are not only by private individuals or business corporation, we hear even of law enforcers exhorting money from migrants. Once a Rohingya man told me how his hard earned money from a day’s work as a labourer had to be handed over to “officers” who threatened to arrest him. Heart wrenching human stories. And this is not happening in some third world warzone somewhere, but right in our midst.
When the migrants go underground, exploited by locals and traffickers alike, denied of human rights and dignity, they will in turn give rise to other social problems. In 2014, there were over 20 gruesome murder cases involving Myanmar nationals in Penang. Under Ops Kelar, the police arrested 17 Myanmar national suspected to be involved in the murders. Police informed me that there is already gang syndicate among some of the migrant communities as they were forced to go underground. Eventually, you and I, the locals, will be affected. Thus, inaction is not an option.
We are a nation of migrants, all of us. In fact, our glorious history started when our forefathers came to this land as refugees, led by the asylum seeker par excellence, the great Parameswara. Malaysia is built layer upon layer by people who left their countries of origin in the Malay archipelago, in China, in India and elsewhere to make this land their home. Today, when we are faced with the problems of migration, our policy solution must be one which does not victimise the migrants.
Instead of sweeping the problem under the carpet, allowing government to manipulate the giving of citizenship, e.g. in the notorious Projek IC in Sabah, we should deal with the question of migrants empirically, objectively and transparently. In the 80s, the government projected that our population should be 70 million by 2100. At this current rate, by natural birth, it is highly unlikely. I am not suggesting at this point that we flung open our doors. But I want to point out that, there is clearly still space for us to accommodate others. However, we must first have a clear goal and strategy, one which safeguards local interests, upholds human rights as well as capitalises on the global talent and human resource pool to drive Malaysia into our second half-century. These are not easy targets much less are they easy to reconcile with one another. But, once again, it is clear that indifference, inaction and prejudice will not do.