MALAYSIA: Tier 2 Watch List

In U.S. Department of State’s 2016 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, Malaysia has been downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List for failing to fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking under the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act 2000 (TVPA).

Malaysia is a destination and, to a much lesser extent, source and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and women and a small number of children subjected to sex trafficking. The majority of trafficking victims are among the estimated two million documented and an even greater number of undocumented migrant laborers in Malaysia.

The more than 150,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers in Malaysia lack formal status or the ability to obtain legal work permits, leaving them vulnerable to trafficking. Children from refugee communities in Peninsular Malaysia are reportedly subjected to forced begging. A large population of Filipino Muslims resides illegally in Sabah, some of whom are vulnerable to trafficking. Few Malaysian citizens are subjected to trafficking internally and abroad.

In July 2015, Parliament passed amendments to the existing anti-trafficking law to reform its victim protection system; these amendments legally came into force in November.

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= Prosecution =

The government demonstrated uneven anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. These efforts resulted in a decreased number of investigations and prosecutions, but an increase in trafficking convictions from three to seven. Malaysia’s 2007 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act—amended in 2010 and again in 2015—prohibits all forms of human trafficking and prescribes punishments of up to 20 years’ imprisonment, which are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious offenses, such as rape.

In 2015, the government completed 158 investigations of potential trafficking cases—a decrease from 186 in 2014—and reported 247 arrests for suspected trafficking crimes, a figure that was unavailable in the previous year. Officials continued to rely on labor inspections and reports from workers to initiate labor trafficking investigations. The government initiated prosecutions against 38 alleged trafficking offenders—including 24 for sex trafficking and 14 for forced labor—down from 54 prosecutions initiated the previous year.

However, the limited availability of certified interpreters and Malaysia’s decentralized jurisdictions remained challenges. The government continued to pursue cases that could not meet the evidentiary standard for the anti-trafficking law, re-classifying them under the Employment Act, the Immigration Act, and other related laws for prosecution. However, accountability for traffickers remained disproportionately low compared to the scale of the human trafficking problem in the country.

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= Protection =

The government made some efforts to protect victims. The government continued to reform its victim protection system, including some progress on a regulatory framework to allow victims’ freedom of movement and right to work. In July 2015, Parliament passed amendments to the anti-trafficking law, which officially went into force in November 2015.

The Ministry of Home Affairs completed the implementing regulations in March 2016; however, they were not officially in effect at the close of the reporting period, as they awaited formal adoption and publication in the official gazette. The final version of the draft regulations reflected some international best practices and NGO input. If fully implemented, the 2015 amendments to the anti-trafficking law would allow all trafficking victims—including foreigners—who received a protection order to stay at a government facility in Malaysia, to work, and to come and go freely from government or NGO facilities, pending a medical screening and risk assessment.

In 2015, the government identified 1,386 potential trafficking victims who were mainly Vietnamese and Indonesian, followed by Filipino and Thai nationals. The government did not always proactively screen the vulnerable migrant worker population for indicators of trafficking, which left an unknown number of potential victims unidentified and without proper care. The anti-trafficking law provides trafficking victims immunity from immigration offenses. Potential trafficking victims who denied they had been subjected to trafficking or whose employers confiscated their documents were sometimes detained, deported, or charged with immigration offenses.

During the year, most trafficking victims were housed in government facilities as part of a court-ordered 21-day interim protection order (for suspected trafficking victims) or a subsequent 90-day protection order (for certified trafficking victims). In an effort to avoid protracted criminal proceedings and return home more quickly, many victims were unwilling to testify against their traffickers. Reports alleged traffickers threatened victims or bribed them with out-of-court settlements.

The Ministry of Women, Family, and Community Development maintained seven facilities to house trafficking victims—four for women, one for men, and two for child trafficking victims. The government provided basic services to those staying in its facilities, including food, medical care, social and religious activities, and security; NGOs provided some victim rehabilitation and counseling services in most shelters, typically without government-allocated funding. During the reporting period, Malaysian officials negotiated a cooperative agreement to provide a local NGO service provider with RM 44,000 ($11,000) to conduct therapeutic activities at the government’s trafficking shelter in Kuala Lumpur.

Resources from:

U.S. Department of State: Diplomacy in Action. (2016). 2016 Trafficking in Persons 2016 Report. Retrieved from https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/index.htm

U.S. Department of State: Diplomacy in Action. (2016). Trafficking in Persons 2016 Report: Country Narratives. Retrieved from https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2016/258814.htm