HT Word Count

7/25/2019 HT Word Count

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2.0 Introduction

Malaysia is said to be a popular destination amongst migrant workers for

economic reasons i.e, to seek employment opportunities or as a transit country. That is

why these vulnerable and powerless group of minorities is often targeted to becoming

victims of sexual and labour trafficking. The term human trafficking! is thereby used to

describe a form of modern"day slavery whereby victims are forced or otherwise coercedinto labor or sex both within the country and international borders.

The purpose of this report is to discuss the causes of human trafficking both

locally and internationally, the brief operations of the activities, comparing the statistics

of human trafficking in Malaysia and the #lobal, the impact on economy as well as

some recommendations to minimi$e the happenings in Malaysia.



%.0 &iterature 'eview

(efine )uman Trafficking

The *+ defines trafficking as follows

Trafficking in persons! shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or

receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of

abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability,

or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person

having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation -#'M/#+,

200% .

Types of human trafficking

)uman trafficking can be categori$ed into forced labour, sexual exploitation,

organ removal, forced marriage and illicit adoption which involves the illegal selling and

buying of children or baby between parents and buyers.

1auses of human trafficking in Malaysia

The nature of human trafficking varies from region to region. Most commonly it

involves trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation. Men, women and

children can also be trafficked for a diverse range of other purposes, including forced

labour in many illegal industries -1, 2034. In Malaysia, Malaysians from rural and

indigenous communities tend to be more vulnerable to trafficking -non., 2003"2005.

o, why does human trafficking occur6 There are a number of factors that

contributed to human trafficking in Malaysia. The main factor that encourages trafficking

in Malaysia is its 7ob opportunity and economic stability. There are female housemaid

from Indonesia, Thailand, 8hilippines, 1ambodia, 9ietnam, Myanmar, Mongolia and

1hina forced into prostitution even though they were actually given false promises

before coming to Malaysia that they would be offered legal 7obs here -Mohd +a:eim 7is,

2030.

8overty is one of the ma7or factor which has increased women and children

vulnerability to human traffickers. The poor usually suffer in complex financial

constraints, and this makes them willing to place themselves in any kind of 7ob even

migrate overseas to seek for work without investigating in more detail what will their 7ob

be. This is because their ultimate purpose of finding 7ob is to earn as much money as

possible in a short period of time in order to survive. ;urthermore, they also tend to be

ignorance about their rights and the importance of understanding how to protect and

defend themselves from deceived as they are not taught to be one.

In addition to poverty, lack of access to education and knowledge on human

trafficking issue is also another factor. lthough in Malaysia, many government and non"



governmental bodies often stressed on the issue of human trafficking by giving

campaigns, but we tend to be ignorant on the seriousness on this issue. <ithout the

awareness on the issue, we do not know how to protect ourselves and eventually fall in

the trap of human traffickers.

Methodologies in human trafficking

In order to combat human trafficking, the essential =uestion that has to be asked

will be how victims are trafficked. The process of human trafficking can be broken down

into three phases namely recruitment, transportation and transfer, and receipt of person.

The first stage will be recruitment of people. t this stage, the traffickers will not

only recruit the victims but they will also gain control over the victims. The traffickers will

employ three means namely fraud, force and coercion. These means work together and

have been ingrained to form part of the legal definition as to what amounted to human

trafficking.

;raud is where the traffickers often lure people into believing that there are

employments with higher wages and better working conditions elsewhere. 8eople who

are facing financial difficulties or seeking for employment will easily take such bait.

*nbeknownst to them, upon reaching the destination, the working condition may not be

as well as promised or the scope of employment is totally different from what has been

promised. n example will be where the traffickers promised the individual that there will

be a well"paid 7ob in a factory where in actual fact the individual will find himself being

manipulated into becoming a forced labour -/dmons , 2033.

In addition to that, the traffickers may also approach families that are not well"offand offer to send their children to another loving family who will ensure the children will

have a better living environment and better education.

Traffickers may also defraud the individuals through a practice known as debt

bondage. These traffickers may charge the victims fees for food, shelter, transportation,

and other contingent fees in exchange for their service. ome may have to pay it off via

prostitution or forced labour. )owever, the victims may not reali$e that regardless of

how much they work, the amount that they owed will not decrease as the traffickers may

have charged them interest and may also imposed penalties or fines for failing to reach

the daily working =uotas. )ence, they will always be bound by the debt -uhana aad,2034

In order to retain control and to ensure the victims to succumb to their will, the

traffickers may use force or physical violence. 8hysical violence will include rape,

physical abuse or beatings, administrating drug and depriving the victim from food and



sleep. The traffickers will use this method to condition the victims into believing that their

lives will be endangered if they try to escape.

ome traffickers may resort to coercion which is a powerful tool to keep the

victims from disobeying them. Traffickers may threaten to use violence on the victims or

may even threaten them using the livelihood of their family. This will keep the victims inline and they will not escape. They may also hold the victims: travel documents in order

to prevent the victims from escaping.

The second stage will be transportation and transfer of the victims to the said

destination. lthough the word >trafficking: may have implied that the victims are to be

transported across the borders or country, but in actual fact it may not be that case as

the victims need not be taken elsewhere in order for it to amount to human trafficking.

The last stage will be receipt of such person in exchange for monetary value or other

considerations.

'ecent updates

The *nited tates tate (epartment in their Trafficking In 8ersons report -TI8

will rank the countries based upon the level of compliance with the minimum standard

re=uired in Trafficking 9ictims 8rotection ct of 2000 -T98. &evel ?ne refers to full

compliance with the T98 whilst level two is if significant efforts have been made to

comply with the minimum standard. &astly, stage three is where the country has not

make any effort to ensure compliance with the minimum standard re=uired.

In 203%, the * tate (epartment placed Malaysia at level three alongside with

+orth @orea, yria and Aimbabwe for failure to improve its flawed victim protectionregime.

)owever in 203B Trafficking in 8ersons report, the * tate (epartment has

upgraded Malaysia to Tier 2 <atch &ist. This decision has sub7ected to several

criticisms and out lashes by some * lawmakers and human rights advocates who

opined that Malaysia shouldn:t be upgraded to Tier 2 and should remained in &evel

three for its slow progress in convicting the traffickers and alleged that the reason for

upgrading is for trade reasons but such arguments have been watered down by Cohn

@irby, the tate (epartment:s spokesman -*.. (epartment of tate, 203B.

tatistics on human trafficking

'esearch done shown that an approximate number of 20.D million people were

exploited worldwide -non., 2032, involving in forced labour, i.e. sexual exploitations,

forced labour or services and etc -<*I&I+#, n.d.. ?ut of the 20.D million people, D0E

of them -approx. 3F.G million were exploited in the private economy. detail breakdown

of the 20.D million labourers is shown in the chart below



1hart 3. (etail breakdown of labour exploitation worldwide -non., 2032

s shown above, 30E -2.2 million of the labourers were forced by the state

-public economy, whereas the remaining D0E were exploited by the private economy in

the form of sex -prostitution and labour. nother research of forced labour done by the

International &abour ?rganisation is that by gender and age.

1hart 2. Hreakdown of labour exploitation by gender worldwide -non., 2032



1hart %. Hreakdown of labour exploitation by age group worldwide -non., 2032

#enerally, women and girls represent a larger portion than men and boys. BBE

-33.4 million of the victims were females compared to males of 4BE -D.B million. ?n

the other hand, children -under the age of 3F were less involved in human trafficking

compared to adults -aged 3F and above in the research done, which is 25E -B.B

million against G4E -3B.4 million -non., 2032.

1hart 4. Hreakdown of forced labour by region -non., 2032



Hased on 1hart 4, sia"8acific region contributed most to the total number of

forced labour, which is B5E -33.G million, followed by frica of 3FE -%.G million. The

next % regions had numbers =uite close to one another, which is &atin merica and the

1arribean of DE -3.F million, 1entral and outheastern"/urope and the

1ommonwealth of Independent tates of GE -3.5 million, and (eveloped /conomies

and /uropean *nion of GE -3.B million. &astly, Middle /ast contributed the least to thetotal number of forced labour by %E -0.5 million victims -non., 2032.

The main reason that the sia"8acific region had the most victims was due to the

fact the region consisted of countries with huge populations for example 1hina and

India.

Malaysia, being in the Tier 2 <atch &ist category in the 203B Trafficking in

8ersons -TI8 'eport, also had a serious issue with human trafficking. substantial

portion of the victims are amongst the approximated two million documented and more

than two million undocumented foreign labourers currently working in Malaysia -non.,203B.

s of 3DDG, these alien workers totaled up to 3.2 million, amounting to an

estimation of 5E of the population and around F.BE of MalaysiaJs labour force during

that time. ?ut of 3.2million, B00,000 to G00,000 are illegal labourers -@assim, 3DDG.

tatistics had shown that there were an approximated presence of 534,F4F non"

Malaysians trafficked into the boundaries of /ast and <est Malaysia, notwithstanding

that there were more than B00,000 illegal labourers trafficked into Malaysia in 2000

-hmad hah 8akeer Mohamed, 2033.

)owever, it is not the main disadvantage of having illegal labourers in Malaysia

-)am$ah bdul"'ahmana, 2032. The primary drawback is that Malaysians would be

overly dependent on the Jalien workersJ especially in the critical sectors stated by the

(eputy )uman 'esource Minister of Malaysia -non., 203B caused by their willingness

to be employed with lower wages rather than higher salary or wages that a local worker

would demand. lthough this too would prompt higher unemployment rate of

Malaysians, but some companies might still use foreign workers in order to reduce

labour cost to the company so as to be more competitive in their business.

Impacting the market for human traffickingThe entry of illegal immigrant via the human trafficking activity causes less

demand for local work labour in the market -hmad hah 8akeer Mohamed, 2033, p.

3G4. ince they are the illegal immigrants, it is obvious that the employers will not have

to provide them the statutory employee:s welfare benefits and they are willing to work

with a lower wage rate as compared to the local workers. This can then minimi$e the

cost of the employer. Therefore, by reducing the demand for trafficked humans means



decreasing benefits to employers of employing trafficked labour. If information is used to

educate consumers about the horrors trafficked individuals face, consumer boycotts of

certain products and services can be used to decrease benefits to employers -/li$abeth

M. <heaton, 2030. This because if this continues to happen, it will affect the political

and economic aspect as the unemployment rate in Malaysia will increase significantly.

s a result of the increase in the unemployment rate, Malaysia:s income per capita willnot meet the high income threshold which will then causes Malaysia to remain as an

upper middle income nation, instead of becoming a high income nation by year 2020,

under the /conomic Transformation 8rogram.

muggling activity is a threat to the Malaysian economy because the government

lost millions of ringgit from the total collection of tax which can be of good use for the

development of the country -hmad hah 8akeer Mohamed, 2033, p. 3GB. )uman

trafficking is an illegal activity operated by some illegal and unregistered organi$ations

which will not pay income taxes to the government irrespective of how much they

actually and thereby, without the sufficient fund, the government will not be able toprovide a better public facilities and in maintaining the popular tourism areas. In

addition, the economy of Malaysia will not expand as government has insufficient cash

to be spent in order to boost the economy. If human trafficking activities is continuing,

foreign investors may withdraw their investments for better investment opportunities as

the Malaysia:s economy is not expanding.

1onclusion and recommendation

The Malaysia #overnment can revise the current human trafficking act. mong

them are ection 32, ection 3%, ection 34, ection 3B and ection 3B -uhana

aad, 2034, by implementing a stricter punishment on person who is found guilty inconducting human trafficking activities. ;or example, the amount of fine payable can be

increased while the period of imprisonment can be lengthen. This would definitely help

to create a greater fear among the people. Indirectly, the rate of human trafficking

activities in Malaysia will reduce as people will be more reluctant in conducting such

crimes as the punishments imposed are heavy.

+ext, currently there are five non"governmental organi$ations -+#? namely the

+ational 1ouncil of <omenJs ?rgani$ations -+1<?, 1ouncil of 1hild <elfare, Institute

of Malaysian and International tudies -I@M, )uman 'ights 1ommission

-*)@M and the 1oalition to bolish Modern"(ay lavery in sia -1M beingappointed to the 1ouncil for nti"Trafficking in 8ersons and nti"muggling of Migrants

-M8? to eradicate the human trafficking in Malaysia. These organi$ations have

contributed their ideas and expertise as well as participate in organi$ing public

awareness campaigns -uhana aad, 2034. In order to enhance the effectiveness of

the campaigns, the government can set up a fund for the M8? to help them in

organi$ing better campaigns. The awareness campaigns can be held during the

weekends and public holidays in places that are fre=uently visit by the public to increase



the participation by the people. The public plays an important role in eradicating human

trafficking because without the involvement of them in such illegal activities, it will not be

possible for the human trafficking syndicates to promote their activities.

In addition, education plays an important role in determining one:s future. The

/ducation Ministry of Malaysia can include human trafficking as part of the Moralsub7ect syllabus in order to allow the younger generation to be exposed to the critical

issues faced by the country. The schools are also encouraged to organi$e a trip to the

awareness campaign held by the +#?s so the students can learn more about the

human trafficking apart from what is being taught in classes. s they learn about human

trafficking and the negative impacts in their young age, it will eventually prevent them

from supporting and involving themselves in such activities in the future.

+owadays, technology is part of everyday life and the Internet is a very strong

platform of sharing information. 1onveying a message through Internet will be one of

the fastest way to spread it globally as Internet is a world without boundaries. TheMalaysia #overnment can create accounts in the ;acebook, Twitter and Koutube to

gather people all over the world to combat the human trafficking as this is not only an

issue in Malaysia, but globally. uthori$ed personnel is to upload relevant news, videos

and reports related to human trafficking which then allow the people to discuss about it

in the page created and can share it with their friends who does not have an access to

it, which in the end created the public awareness of human trafficking.

In conclusion, the human trafficking issues is not 7ust some sort of humanities

issue but is a vile and heinous crime, it is the scourge of the mankind, and a gross

abuse of human rights -bad%maggie, 2033. The volume of trafficking activities takingplace in the country is so widespread and we should never ignore them. Therefore, this

issue will only be minimi$ed if the public have the knowledge about the seriousness of it

becoming so that they can be more aware as well as the emphasis and direct

assistance whether in terms of moral and financial from either the government or non"

government organi$ations can be obtained.

-2FD0 words

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