MALAYSIA has slightly improved its rating in this year’s United States government Trafficking in Persons (TIPS) report, but has still has not met “the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so”.

The report, which is released every year by the US State Department, now places Malaysia on Tier 2, a marginal improvement from last year’s Tier 2 Watch List.

Tier 2 Watch List means a country has not met the US government’s minimum standards of protecting victims of human trafficking but is making significant progress to meet those standards.

The US government sets three criteria to differentiate between Tier 2 and Tier 2 Watch List. They are: a significant increase in the number of trafficking victims, failure to provide increasing protection to victims when compared with the previous year, and what promises a country has made to combat human trafficking in the future.

The report says that Malaysia has “demonstrated increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period; therefore, Malaysia was upgraded to Tier 2”.

The report said Putrajaya had stepped up enforcement of a law prohibiting employers retaining the passports of migrant workers, citing 17 convictions for such offences as progress in this area.

The State Department also recognises the setting up of law enforcement task force comprising officers from seven agencies to improve training in investigation tactics. It also notes the government allocating more resources to combat human trafficking.

But Malaysia is still lacking in victim protection and granting workers the freedom to move.

The report also alleges that government officials had accepted bribes from people traffickers.

“While authorities investigated these crimes, culpable officials typically avoided punishment. However, the government arrested at least forty-two officials during the reporting period for smuggling and trafficking-related offences, although it is unclear how many they charged with trafficking-related crimes.”

Malaysia’s human trafficking record has been patchy, alternating from Tier 3 to Tier 2 since 2001. The country was under the spotlight in 2015, when mass graves of human trafficking victims were discovered in the jungles near the Thai border, as well its handling of the Andaman Sea migrant crisis.

For this reason, Malaysia’s upgrade to Tier 2 Watch List  in the 2015 report from 2014’s Tier 3, which is the lowest rating in the TIPS reports, raised eyebrows.

The upgrade was opposed by US lawmakers because they believe it was done to enable Malaysia to be part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was the Obama administration’s flagship trade pact.

The US lawmakers fear that a country like Malaysia, which relies heavily on cheap foreign labour in the manufacturing sector, will have an undue advantage over the US, which has much stricter labour laws.

President Donald Trump has cited the fear of losing manufacturing jobs in America as why he is scuppering the TPP.

The annual TIPS report rates countries into four tiers: Tiers 1, 2, 2 Watch List and 3.

Tier 3 means a country does not meet the US government’s minimum standards for protecting victims of human trafficking and are not making significant efforts to do so. Tier 1 does not mean there is no human trafficking, but those standards are being met.

 At Tier 2, Malaysia is keeping company with developed economies like Japan and Iceland, as well as impoverished countries like  Malawi and Lesotho.

In Southeast Asia, Singapore is in Tier 2 as well for its practices with migrant contruction workers while, Thailand’s rampant  sex trade places it on Tier 2 Watch List. – June 28, 2017.