THE 2023 edition of the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report sees Malaysia being moved from its Tier 3 Watch List to Tier 2.

Tier 2 is made up of countries that do not fully meet the US minimum standards on fighting human trafficking but are making significant efforts.

“The government made key achievements during the reporting period, considering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, if any, on its anti-trafficking capacity,” the report said over the upgrade.

The report added Malaysia’s achievements included initiating more trafficking investigations, prosecuting and convicting more traffickers, and prosecuting complicit officials.

“The government also identified more victims, initiated efforts and provided funding to raise awareness on trafficking on palm oil plantations, and increased training, including employing a trauma-informed approach, victim identification, and amendments to the anti-trafficking law, for officials, law enforcement, and victims service providers,” it added.

Malaysia was downgraded to the Tier 3 Watch List in 2021 and remained there last year. It was in Tier 2 from 2017 to 2020.

Countries in Tier 3 face restrictions of assistance from the US, sanctions, or ineligibility to trade benefits.

The report also stated the Malaysian government facilitated greater freedom of movement among victims receiving services in government facilities and granted more victims permission to work. It also increased funding for victim shelters.

Despite these achievements, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas, the report stated.

One of the government’s failures was in meeting the minimum standards to sufficiently criminally prosecute labour traffickers in the palm oil sector or the disposable glove manufacturing industry.

“The government did not systematically implement standard operating procedure (SOP) countrywide to proactively identify victims, including forced labour victims, during law enforcement raids or among vulnerable populations with whom authorities came in contact.

“Due to a lack of formal identification procedures, authorities likely detained, arrested, and deported some unidentified trafficking victims,” the report stated.

The report added delays in prosecution, insufficient inter-agency coordination, and inadequate services for victims discouraged foreign victims originating from foreign countries from remaining in Malaysia to participate in criminal proceedings and continued to hinder successful anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts.

The report also made “prioritised recommendations” for the government to implement.

They are to:

• Increase efforts to identify trafficking victims, including victims of labor trafficking, among vulnerable populations, including household workers and workers in the palm oil and disposable glove manufacturing sectors;
• Train officials, including police, labour inspectors, and immigration officials, on SOP for victim identification that includes information on trafficking indicators;
• Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking cases – as distinct from migrant smuggling – including those involving complicit officials and forced labour crimes;
• Expand labour protections for domestic workers and investigate allegations of domestic worker abuse;
• Make public the results of investigations involving corrupt officials to increase transparency and deterrence and hold officials criminally accountable;
• Increase law enforcement capacity to investigate and prosecute trafficking cases, including by improving interagency coordination;
• Expand the mechanism to provide interpretation services for victims;
• Improve case management and communication with trafficking victims, including the consistent request and use of interpreters and the Victim Assistance Specialist programme;
• Expand efforts to inform migrant workers of their rights under Malaysian labour laws – including their right to maintain access to their passports at any time – and their options for legal recourse to exploitation;
• Include language on protections for foreign workers in model contracts and bilateral memoranda of understanding with labour source countries;
• Reduce prosecution delays, including by providing improved guidance to prosecutors on pursuing trafficking charges, and increase judicial familiarity with the full range of trafficking crimes, particularly forced labour;
• Expand cooperation with civil society groups, including through financial or in-kind support to groups to provide some victim rehabilitation services;
• Eliminate recruitment or placement fees charged to workers by recruiters and ensure any recruitment fees are paid by employers;
• Increase the number of trafficking victims who obtain approval for freedom of movement from shelters, expand freedom of movement to include unchaperoned movement, and increase victims’ access to communication with people outside shelter facilities;
• Increase efforts to identify trafficking victims among People’s Republic of China (PRC) workers on PRC government-affiliated infrastructure projects. – June 16, 2023.