A TOTAL of 5,888 people were caught entering the country illegally from 2019 to January 31 this year, federal police said.

Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants principal assistant director Fadil Marsus said those detained were people attempting to enter using ungazetted sea and land routes favoured by syndicates, particularly from Indonesia.

Of the total number of people caught entering illegally, 630 cases were classified as migrant smuggling offences. The breakdown was 184 cases in 2019, 205 in 2020, 217 last year and 24 this year.

Fadil said sea routes were being used as police had tightened controls at land entry points.

“Syndicates then tried their luck by bringing in migrants by sea. However, their efforts were thwarted by the authorities,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Also arrested since 2019 were 1,197 tekong or middlemen who masterminded migrant smuggling syndicates involving people wanting to leave Indonesia and the Philippines, and also ethnic Rohingya leaving Myanmar.

They tried to enter Malaysia by sea routes in the south, central and north of the peninsula.

Fadil said all arrests were made in accordance with section 26A of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti -Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007.

“Through more frequent operations and stricter inspections, we can address the smuggling issues.”

The recent United States Human Trafficking Report released on March 1 noted that Malaysia is still in the midst of improving its current Tier 3 status to Tier 1 or Tier 2 status.

“Police are committed to combatting human trafficking and migrant smuggling, and hope to be placed in Tier 1 or Tier 2,” said Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department director Abd Jalil Hassan.

“Efforts to achieve the target would be carried out with agencies under the Council of Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (Mapo), Home Ministry, Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and other agencies,” he said.

On July 2, last year, Malaysia was downgraded to Tier 3 in the US State Department’s annual human trafficking report, on grounds it did not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking under the US Protection of Victims of Trafficking Act 2000.

According to the report, countries in Tier 1 refers to full compliance and Tier 2 is for significant efforts to comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act 2000 (TVPA) while Tier 3 is countries that make no effort to comply with TVPA minimum standards.

The report said that Malaysia has not implemented appropriate measures to tackle human trafficking, even after taking into account the impact of Covid-19 on the country’s anti-trafficking capacity.

“The Government of Malaysia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.

“Despite the lack of significant measures, the Malaysian government has taken several measures to address human trafficking.  

“They have brought several individuals to court, using standard operating procedure for the victim identification process.

“In addition, Malaysia has also provided protection services to victims of trafficking, and released the results of a study they funded, on allegations of the use of forced labour and children in the oil palm sector,” according to the report.

However, the US State Department said the Malaysian government continued to conflate the issue of human trafficking and the crime of smuggling migrants as one.

This and other failures, including failure to thoroughly investigate allegations of forced labour in oil palm plantations and claims about corrupt officials, have kept Malaysia in Tier 3.

Besides Malaysia, other countries in Tier 3 include Afghanistan, Burma, China, Russia, North Korea, South Sudan, Syria and Guinea-Bissau. – March 23, 2022.