Activists say it again: Political will needed to end human trafficking
PETALING JAYA: A damning US report on human trafficking in Malaysia has prompted activists to repeat their demand for the government to muster the political will to deal with the issue.
North-South Initiative chief Adrian Pereira and Tenaganita executive director Glorene A Das said Putrajaya’s failure to stop the exploitation of foreign workers could result in the imposition of trade restrictions by several countries.
The activists had often spoken of a lack of political will when complaining about the mistreatment of foreign workers but were now reacting to the recent US State Department downgrade of Malaysia to Tier 3 in its annual human trafficking report.
Malaysia was at Tier 2 on the US watchlist in the Trafficking in Persons (TiP) report for three years before falling to the lowest tier this year.
Speaking to FMT, Pereira said legal reforms had not taken place quickly enough to end human trafficking and forced labour, and there had been no clarity from the Perikatan Nasional-led government on measures to fight the two evils.
“We may be losing investments. We shouldn’t sabotage ourselves this way,” he said.
According to Das, the US report did not surprise her because the issue had not been “systematically addressed”.
She said the Immigration Act “should not be superseding everything” because a foreign worker would sometimes become undocumented through no fault of his.
“Sometimes the employer does not want to extend the worker’s work permit. At times this is done to enable him to reduce the worker’s wages.”
She urged immigration authorities to look at each undocumented worker’s case separately and called for the tightening of laws to protect those giving information on cases of forced labour.
Das said that the government also lacked the will to follow through with its National Action Plan on Anti-Trafficking in Persons 2021-2025.
“It has not been on this government’s agenda to protect undocumented workers,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) said forced labour was not widespread in the country.
“We understand that companies have already taken steps to resolve the issues raised by working closely with the government,” it said in a statement to FMT.
However, it admitted that the US report could result in trade restrictions from the US and other countries.
“It will also impact the prospects of any free trade agreements with the US until Malaysia can show it has taken considerable steps to improve the ranking with the necessary reforms required,” it said.
FMM added that efforts were under way in several sectors to reform some of the current practices to ensure that elements of forced labour are addressed and eliminated.
Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) deputy president Mohd Effendy Abdul Ghani told FMT it might be unfair to blame Putrajaya for the presence of forced labour in the country.
He said the government might not be aware of the situation at plantations and factories during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
He said large plantation companies had unions protecting the workers.
“But we need to check on plantations run by SMEs without unions. The government and MTUC could work together on this.” - FMT
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