Front-line Malaysian
officials who lack understanding of human trafficking are hampering Malaysia's
efforts to fight the crime, said the United States' 2012 Trafficking In Persons
(TIP) Report.
These
officials included those from the police, immigration and labour departments,
it said.
“(This)
continues to hinder the identification and proper investigation of trafficking
cases and identification and assistance to trafficking victims,” said the
report.
Released
annually by the US Department of State, it recommended that the Government
increase its training for officials to effectively handle sex and labour
trafficking cases.
It
said the training should have a particular emphasis on victim protection and
identification of labour trafficking victims.
The
report noted that Malaysia had been placed on the Tier 2 Watch List for the
third consecutive year because the government had not “shown evidence of
overall increasing efforts to address human trafficking compared to the
previous year”.
Malaysia,
it said, was only granted a waiver from a required downgrade to Tier 3 because
it had a written plan which, if implemented, could make significant efforts to
meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.
The
report said foreign victims were still confined to “substandard facilities” and
provided insufficient legal, translation or psychological resources.
However,
it noted the Government's continued efforts to pre-vent human trafficking,
including continuing an anti-trafficking public awareness campaign in the
media.
Officials,
it said, also displayed an increased willingness to speak about the dangers of
labour trafficking in addition to sex trafficking.
On
the issue of sex trafficking, it noted that there was an increasing number of
Ugandan women fraudulently recruited to Malaysia and forced into prostitution
upon arrival.
It
stated that Ugandan and Nigerian syndicates transported victims between China
and Malaysia, using threats of physical harm, including voodoo, towards the
victims and their families.
Shaila
Koshy and Isabelle Lai
The
Star
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