THE Home Ministry tabled its report in parliament on efforts made to raise the country’s position after the United States has kept Malaysia in Tier 3 of its Trafficking in Persons (USTIP) Report 2022 amid the visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today.

In the report, Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin (Larut-PN) told the Dewan Rakyat that the government has conducted various programmes to deter human trafficking and amended the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act.

“The government has conducted programmes so that the stakeholders – judiciary, prosecution and enforcement agencies – can understand the latest amendments,” he said.

Hamzah said the government is also in the midst of improving the standard operating procedures for the protection of trafficked persons and has launched a national plan to address the issue of forced labour.

“This report is aimed at explaining the government’s initiatives on the subject of human trafficking and has already been shared with the US Embassy on April 1,” he said.

Hamzah, however, did not address some of the issues highlighted in the USTIP report such as the lack of prosecution against corrupt government officials.

In the debate, Mujahid Yusof Rawa (Parit Buntar-PH) said it was time the government stopped protecting corrupt officials.

“It is time for us to ask why we are not taking action against corrupt government officials. This is systemic corruption,” he said. 

He urged Hamzah to tell parliament how many government officials have been prosecuted since Malaysia was placed in Tier 3 on US’ human trafficking list.

Government backbencher Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz (Padang Rengas-BN) said the government must look at the way it brings in foreign workers through the Home Ministry.

“I sit in parliament’s select committee on human rights and we believe that the foreign worker system is how we are put on Tier 3,” said the former minister.

Meanwhile, labour issues advocate Charles Santiago (Klang-PH) also questioned the minister on the corruption issues in the government and the recent dispute with Indonesia over the maid recruitment online system that Malaysia uses.

“Why is the government using the maid online system although it allows human trafficking? This is happening in the Home Ministry,” said Santiago.

For the second consecutive year, Malaysia will remain in Tier 3 of the USTIP Report 2022, having failed to meet the minimum standards in its effort to eliminate human trafficking.

Malaysia is in the company of 21 other countries, including Afghanistan, China, Syria, South Sudan and Venezuela.

According to the USTIP report, police had arrested six officers for involvement in trafficking crimes but it did not report the details of these cases.

“The immigration department separately arrested 40 officials on trafficking-related charges, but the government did not prosecute them; it demoted or removed 29 of these officials from their jobs while it continued to investigate 11 of them at the end of the reporting period,” it said. – August 2, 2022.