BUKIT Aman Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has raided condominiums in Petaling Jaya and rescued four Indonesian women believed to have been subject to forced labour.

The raid by a team from the Anti-Trafficking of Persons and Smuggling of Migrants Division followed a tip-off about suspicious activities in a luxury condominium in Petaling Jaya.

Division chief assistant director Fadil Marsus said police raided one unit at 5pm yesterday, and detained an Indonesian man and a Malaysian woman who, he said, were part of a criminal gang.

“The two suspects are believed to have locked up the maids and not their salaries for several months.

“Later, another raid was carried out on another unit in the same, where three Indonesian women had been locked up,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

According to Fadil, the suspects were detained under section 12 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007, while the women were rescued under the provision of section 44 of the same act.

Fadil said the suspects would be remanded to assist the investigation.

Last year, the US State Department downgraded Malaysia to the worst tier in its annual report on human trafficking.

Sources told Reuters that Malaysia had fallen to tier 3 of the 2021 Trafficking in Persons report, after spending three years in tier 2.

According to the State Department, countries in tier 3 fail to comply with the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking or make no significant effort to do so.

A tier 3 ranking will likely affect Malaysia’s access to some US aid, the portal reported.

Malaysia is home to some 2 million registered migrant workers, and many more who are not documented.

The site further reported that the country has more than 170,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers, most of them Rohingya from Myanmar.

Three Malaysian companies – Top Glove Corp Bhd, Sime Darby Plantation and FGV Holdings – are subject to import bans by the United States, after investigations carried out by its Customs and Border Protection agency. – February 4, 2022.