PETALING JAYA: Malaysia has been downgraded in the US State Department’s annual human trafficking report released this morning, with the reason being it does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.
The report said Malaysia, which was placed on the Tier 2 Watchlist in last year’s report, failed to improve even considering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity.
“Therefore, Malaysia was downgraded to Tier 3. Despite the lack of significant efforts, the government took some steps to address trafficking such as prosecuting and convicting among others.
“However, the government continued to conflate human trafficking and migrant smuggling crimes and did not adequately address or criminally pursue credible allegations from multiple sources alleging labour trafficking, including in the rubber manufacturing industry and palm oil sector, with the government owning 33% of the third largest palm oil company in the world,” said the report released at 1am today.-FMT