Modern-day slavery must stop

TODAY, no country is safe from human trafficking or being caught in its tangled network. It is estimated that there are more than 20 million victims of human trafficking, yet, no government anywhere is doing enough to eliminate it.

Human trafficking is defined as the sale or trade of human beings, and it is considered to be a modern day form of slavery.

Malaysia is widely regarded as a destination and transit country for women, men and children trafficked for forced labour and commercial exploitation. Australia has claimed that 60 per cent of trafficked foreigners there used Malaysia as a transit point. Human trafficking in Malaysia is very serious but the level of awareness is very low.

Trafficking victims are exploited by coercion, force or fraud for forced labour, sexual exploitation and contractual servitude.

Economic growth and job opportunities in Malaysia are among the reasons victims are attracted to this country. The high demand for people who can be used for cheap labour, begging or commercial sexual exploitation is one of the biggest causes of human trafficking today.

Human trafficking is hugely profitable, especially where there is a market for cheap labour. Crime syndicates are able to convince or deceive impoverished workers, who are desperate for jobs, with the promise of a better life.

Malaysia’s long borders at sea and land with Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines make the country geographically strategic for human trafficking. Lack of or failure of enforcement strategy are among the factors that encourage human traffickers to use this country.

Trafficking victims come from a range of national, age, socioeconomic and education backgrounds.

Most of them are poor workers who migrate willingly to Malaysia from Indonesia, Nepal, India, Thailand, China, the Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam in search of better economic opportunities.

Sadly, a significant number of young women, who are recruited for work in restaurants, shops and hotels, are coerced into the commercial sex trade.

Studies show that victims tend to come from politically unstable countries, where the public sector is perceived to be highly corrupt, as measured by Transparency International Corruption Perception Index.

The weak institutions in these countries usually offer poor protection. The push factors, such as police corruption, extortion, and cronyism, result in state institutions turning a blind eye to trafficking syndicates, or even unlawfully facilitating the trafficking.

A lack of opportunity for economic growth in neighbouring countries encourages many individuals to join criminal networks that traffic young women for sexual exploitation, which is rampant in most urban areas and tourist destinations in Malaysia.

With the influx of sex workers from neighbouring countries, prostitution in Malaysia has become notorious as an “industry”, despite efforts to crack down on human trafficking and sex tourism by the authorities.

According to unofficial estimates, there are about 150,000 prostitutes in Malaysia, with approximately 10,000 to 20,000 of them in the Klang Valley alone.

Worst of all, the advent of modern technology has made the world’s oldest profession available online, like many other vice activities, such as online gambling.

While many of Malaysia’s trafficking offenders are influential business people, large organised crime syndicates are also behind some of the trafficking in foreigners in Malaysia. There are mounting allegations that recruitment agencies in the country are engaging in fraud, with some involved in forced labour and human trafficking.

To prevent modern-day slavery, it is important to find the root cause of human trafficking. It is a global crime that generates billions of dollars in profits each year, and is a complex issue, fuelled by a lack of value for life, poverty, growth in the global sex market, uneven development, corruption of officials, cultural practices and the lack of political will to end it.

As we have seen, victims are looking for a better life to escape poverty or oppression in their countries, but some are tricked or fall into the hands of human traffickers locally and overseas.

Research shows that 46 per cent of trafficking victims know their recruiters. The traffickers use influential villagers to identify families who are economically vulnerable. Some parents or family members in poor countries sell young women and children to traffickers. Traffickers also tend to promise well-paid work, marriages to rich husbands or debt bondage, where they provide economic incentives and financial loans to parents that bind their children into sex-slavery or other exploitative forms of labour. Debt terms are often ill-defined.

It is the same situation in Malaysia, where some victims encounter forced labour or debt bondage at the hands of their traffickers, employers, employment agents or informal labour recruiters.

Young women and children are the target group because of their marginalisation in many societies and their limited economic resources. Other target groups include people from impoverished and low-income families, ethnic minorities, indigenous people, hill tribes, refugees, illegal migrants, people with low levels of education and young girls running away from home.

Studies show that corruption is present at every link in the trafficking chain, beginning with a victim’s recruitment, transport, transfer and harbouring, to their exploitation.

Corruption is the grease that illicitly enables their movement within and across countries, without detection or the need for paperwork. It is a constant companion to human trafficking and the suffering that it brings.

Once victims reach their destination and the exploitation begins, traffickers rely on corruption to maintain the silence of victims and avoid arrest. They can stay in our country as long as they like because there is lack of enforcement.

Several law enforcement officials were charged in court with accepting bribes to allow immigrants to enter Malaysia illegally. Though Malaysia has made some notable steps towards protecting the victims of trafficking, these steps have not yet resulted in tangible change. Experts agree that the government needs to implement more stringent policies to make more lasting changes.

This year, the United States has downgraded Malaysia, along with three other countries — Thailand, Gambia and Venezuela, to Tier 3 in its annual Trafficking of Persons (TIP) Report. Tier-3 countries do not fully comply with the minimum standards and have not shown the US that they are making significant efforts to do so.

Unfortunately, despite its prevalence and the seriousness of the crime, trafficking is currently not viewed as a priority by law enforcement agencies. To achieve significant reduction in human trafficking, police, Immigration and other investigative agencies have to be trained to manage their intelligence professionally, and to prosecute and enhance penalties for individuals engaging in sex tourism in order to reduce human trafficking in Malaysia.

Law enforcement agencies have to eliminate the opportunities that allow individuals to use Malaysia as an entry point for their criminal acts.

To give real service to the nation, law enforcement agencies must acquire something that cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity. Strengthen integrity and prevent opportunities in the sectors perceived to be at high risk to corruption. Therefore, integrity is non-negotiable.

Surveys have revealed that the level of corruption, or the tolerance of it by society, has a direct correlation with the level of economic well-being of the nation. Besides that, corruption compromises national integrity, destroys our nation, affects future generations and adds to more serious social problems.

However, bribery and corruption puts love for money above love for one’s country. No one should betray his country by accepting bribes from human traffickers or illegal immigrants.

According to Karl Klaus, corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former endangers the morals of the country. By Datuk Akhbar Satar