KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 (Bernama) -- The Union Network International-Malaysia Labour Centre (UNI-MLC) has expressed its appreciation to the government for successfully upgrading Malaysia's ranking to Tier 2 in the United States Department of State's 2024 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.
Its president Datuk Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal said this achievement is evidence of the government's commitment to addressing human trafficking issues.
“UNI-MLC congratulates the government on this positive achievement. The report outlines 16 areas for improvement and action plans that Malaysia can implement for the next evaluation period from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025.
“According to the statement released by the Ministry of Home Affairs (KDN) yesterday, this upgrade is strategic and significant as Malaysia was previously assessed at Tier 3 in 2023, with the last Tier 2 ranking being in 2017,” he said in a statement today.
In its statement yesterday, KDN welcomed Malaysia’s positive upgrade to Tier 2, describing it as highly strategic and significant for the country.
Mohamed Shafie noted that this achievement resulted from the continuous commitment of various stakeholders, including the Ministry of Human Resources (KESUMA), and the efforts of its minister, Steven Sim, in realising the agenda to combat human trafficking in Malaysia.
He said both KDN and KESUMA have played crucial and consistent roles in bringing about improvements in this issue.
“For instance, last year, KESUMA, as Chairman of the Special Committee to Study Labour Trafficking Issues, stated its intention to work closely with KDN and other stakeholders to combat human trafficking, particularly forced labour.,
“Importantly, Malaysia’s ranking has improved for the first time in seven years. UNI-MLC is confident that the concerted and comprehensive efforts will continue to demonstrate that Malaysia does not compromise on human trafficking issues,” he said.
He said UNI-MLC is also ready to cooperate with both ministries to address human trafficking issues and further improve Malaysia's ranking through a holistic approach.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Migrant Care country representative Alex Ong said it is timely for Malaysian activists to engage ethically with migrant communities, advocating the ‘Do not harm’ principles rather than finding blame and allegations to attract media attention with overrated foreign activists.
Furthermore, Ong said there are still discrepancies in the policy delivery system, including the database of documented and undocumented migrants, the monitoring system of domestic workers, abuse of outsource business models as well as the lack of migrant policies for micro, small and medium enterprises.
“Unregulated non-institutional cleaning services still require policy interventions to eliminate exploitations by house-to-house cleaning companies cum domestic workers agencies that developed illicit deals in making cleaners into domestic workers...
“Further collaborations with active grassroots non-governmental organisations will enhance the effectiveness of policy development and its delivery system. We still need strong political will to improve migrant management,” he said.
-- BERNAMA
