MP SPEAKS There is a taste, a smell to freedom. You and I enjoy it. Many don’t. Around the world, an estimated 20 to 27 million people are believed to live in slavery.
And many of these cases are taking place in Malaysia.
The horrifying experience of Indian national Lokesh Sapaliga in a Sarawak factory is the latest case of modern day slavery here.
Lokesh worked in sub-human conditions, was forced to eat rotting food and paid a little over RM20 for 14 to 20 hours of work a day.
An Indian agent in Mumbai collaborated with a sub-agent in Malaysia, who sent him to work in an oil palm factory after promising a lucrative job at an oil rig.
He managed to escape and secretly took pictures of the working and living conditions.
This story is shocking but it’s nothing new. We have heard and seen similar or worse stories over the years now.
Cases aplenty here, but prosecution is rare
Malaysia has an obligation to abide by the five out of eight core conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which the country has ratified.
However, prosecution for forced labour trafficking is rare in Malaysia. Between 2012 and August 2013, there were a total of 120 cases brought under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, but resulted only in 23 convictions.
The government has to ensure perpetrators are prosecuted and victims are not treated as offenders. Victims must have access to competent judicial channels in order to obtain redress in cases of abuse and exploitation.
Malaysia must stop further criminalising of migrant workers. The government cares two hoots about the switching of employment contracts upon arrival and an estimated 90 percent of local employers retain the passports of their migrant workers.
These workers are afraid to report abuse or even request information concerning labour rights. Migrant workers who leave their employer due to abuse become undocumented workers, subject to deportation.
Malaysia must also look at ILO’s call to Putrajaya to drafts a law to tighten the regulation of private employment agencies. The ILO also recommended that this law be extended to cover outsourcing agencies.
The ILO estimates some US$150 billion (RM500.87 billion) in profits are generated annually by private businesses from human trafficking, of which US$99 billion (RM330.57 billion) goes to the sex industry.
And Malaysia seems to be playing a big role.
A two-year study of labour conditions in the electronics manufacturing industry in Malaysia by international labour rights organisation, Verité, showed that one in three foreign workers surveyed in this industry was in a condition of forced labor.
According to the Verité report, virtually every device on the market today may have come in contact with modern-day slavery because many of the most recognisable brands source components for their products from Malaysia.
Verité’s study says the widespread reliance on third-party agents for the recruitment, management and employment of foreign workers limits their protection and blurs accountability for labour conditions.
All these elements trap people like Lokesh as bonded labourers in Malaysia.
This is a serious problem, which the Umno-led government is very aware of but does very little about.
After years of warnings, the United States recently downgraded Malaysia to Tier 3 in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, after the country ignored warnings to draw up a plan to comply with “the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking”.
Despite the gravity of the problem, we have only seen scorn and complacency from ruling party leaders.
It’s this attitude that has pushed Malaysia to among the worst countries for human trafficking, which could mean less funding or prompt Washington to withhold or withdraw assistance that is unrelated to trade or humanitarian aid.
Frederick Douglas, a former slave and abolitionist leader said, “No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck."
This seems to be true in Malaysia’s case.
CHARLES SANTIAGO is the DAP Member of Parliament for Klang.
