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MAY DAY-MALAYSIA: New Law Targets Traffickers, Not Victims
By Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 30, 2007 (IPS) - Malaysia has tabled a tough new anti-human
trafficking bill that punishes offenders with up to 20 years in prison,
but rights activists, who had fought for such a law for a decade, say the
bill's success depends heavily on effective enforcement.
Under the new law, tabled in parliament last week, trafficked victims will
not be prosecuted for illegal entry or charged with entering the country
with fraudulent documents that were provided by traffickers.
Instead, they will be placed in "friendly" half-way shelter houses for
three months to two years to heal and help the authorities collect
evidence to prosecute offenders.
Previously in a practice heavily condemned by local and international
organisations, victims were handed over to immigration authorities who
would incarcerate them in detention camps for long periods before
deporting them to their home countries.
The victims were often also charged for illegal entry, working illegally
or working in the vice trade.
Further, there was no comprehensive anti-trafficking law and no
prosecutions for the specific offence of trafficking.
But all that is in the past.
Under the new law, traffickers and those who abet them face lengthy jail
sentences of up to 20 years, heavy fines and even whipping.
"The new law is a major change for the better. It is tough on offenders
and very comprehensive in its reach. But we fear it might sit pretty on
the shelf if not effectively enforced," said Dr Irene Fernandez, executive
director of TENAGANITA, a leading rights non-governmental organisation
(NGO) that champions trafficked women and migrant workers. "We have
demanded for such a law for a decade and now we have it...we are elated."
"It is a real success story," Irene told IPS. "A lot of individuals and
NGOs had worked hard for this law."
She said the law will be a protection for trafficked women, nearly 65
percent of whom are forced into bonded labour and the rest into
prostitution.
"Girls as young as 14 years old are victims," she said. "We hope the new
law will end this tragedy."
Officials had worried that Malaysia was developing into a major transit
centre for trafficked persons from Asia into Europe. "With this law we
want to eliminate trafficking, we want to get tough," said Nazri Aziz,
minister, legal and parliamentary affairs.
"It is a signal to the trafficking syndicates that we mean business," he
told IPS.
The Anti-trafficking in Persons Bill 2007 is expected to become law within
three months. Traffickers who use threats on their victims stand to be
punished with 20 years in jail.
"Besides the severe penalties the law also defines the trafficked victim
in accordance with United Nations protocols, making a definition that is
wide enough to protect most victims," Fernandez said.
Other highlights of the bill include:
- setting up of a enforcement council with NGOs as members, to enforce all
the provisions of the law
- create a national action plan to combat human trafficking
- set up shelters for foreign trafficked victims to stay between three to
2 years
- grant immunity from prosecution for trafficked persons
The country's Human Rights Commission or SUHAKAM in its Malay acronym,
which had also championed for the anti-trafficking law, was elated.
"Finally, the government has acknowledged the problems and is taking the
right action," said Dr Raj Abdul Karim, a SUHAKAM commissioner. "It is our
hope that the bill will be effectively enforced."
She urged the government to also ratify the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
and Punish Trafficking in Persons, a protocol that supplemented the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, and covers the
health and other consequences of trafficking.
The government, while announcing the bill, said it would make it easier
for police, immigration and other authorities to pursue, prosecute and
convict human traffickers.
Minister for women, family and community development Shahrizat Abdul
Jalil, who also pushed for the bill, said while human trafficking had not
reached "alarming proportion", the government nevertheless is "committed
to taking comprehensive measures to combat human trafficking."
In a statement she said that many victims are brought here for
prostitution, forced labour and other illicit purposes.
"We plan to set up shelters for women and children who have fallen victim
to human traffickers and alert the public to the issue through awareness
campaigns," she said.
Police statistics for 2004 showed that about 400 foreign women, mostly
from China, the Philippines and Vietnam, were rescued "from vice dens"
between 2004 and last year.
However Fernandez said these figures were only the tip of the iceberg.
"Trafficking of women into Malaysia for sexual exploitation is a huge
problem that needs urgent measures to resolve," Fernandez said, adding the
new law must be enforced effectively or the lawmakers' intentions to
protect women and child would be defeated.
"Thousands of women are trafficked into Malaysiaàit is a huge problem,"
she said. "The industry is so lucrative that they have tentacles
everywhere. The authorities must defeat them."
Labour experts and trade union officials want provisions of the new law
extended to cover and protect the country's three million migrant workers,
nearly half of them undocumented and therefore in a most vulnerable
situation.
It is common for foreign workers to be transported here on false promises
of easy jobs and high wages.
"Some workers in India and Pakistan were even shown videos of workers
picking apples in Malaysia," said G. Rajasegaran, secretary general of the
Malaysian Trade Union Council, the umbrella organisation of private sector
unions that represents 11 million workers. "We don't grow apples in
Malaysia."
"Malaysia is home to several million foreign workers and their working and
living conditions are deplorableàextreme exploitation is a common everyday
event," he said.
"The workers are brought here and put to hard labour and paid a pittance,
if paid at all," Rajasegaran told IPS. "We consider them as victims of
trafficking as wellàthe government must look at the larger picture that is
trafficking."
(END)
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