Malaysia protects genuine victims of trafficking on a case-to-case basis, but does not make a distinction between illegal migrants and trafficked persons, federal CID director Musa Hassan said today

Speaking at a workshop in Kuala Lumpur today, he said the Immigration Act, Internal Security Act, Federal Constitution and the Penal Code are being used to tackle the trafficking of persons.

This is because there is no single piece of legislation to deal with the problem.

The three-day workshop, 'National Trafficking - Developing a National Plan of Action', is organised by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam).

"Malaysia notes that the UN protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, has defined the term 'trafficking in persons'," Musa said.

"Although this may be an acceptable guideline, in reality the enforcement agencies find it difficult to distinguish between trafficked victims and those involved in 'self-trafficking'," he added.

He also acknowledged that a mechanism has yet to be developed to enable enforcement agencies - like the police, immigration, military, internal security ministry and volunteer army Rela - to distinguish between the categories of migrants.

"The authorities have continuously taken steps to eradicate the problem of illegal immigrants as this would ensure parties concerned will not have opportunities to exploit these immigrants for purposes of prostitution and forced labour," Musa said.

He added that the country is ready to co-operate with Asean member-countries to fight the trafficking of persons.

Malaysia has attracted a large numbers of foreign workers, asylum seekers and migrans - both legal and undocumented - from countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Burma, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and China.

Anselm Charles Fernandis, a representative of the Attorney-General's Chambers, conceded there are weakness in the country's handling of the matter despite having an "arsenal" of laws to deal with human trafficking.

US ranking

The United Sates Embassy's deputy chief of mission Robert A Pollard said Malaysia is currently ranked in the second of three tiers in the US State Department's yearly report on trafficking in persons.

"This report requires input from all of our diplomatic posts, which work with foreign governments, media, NGOs and international organisations to gather information," he said.

Every nation that has more than 100 documented trafficking cases in ranked according to the government's willingness to monitor and eliminate trafficking.

"Specifically, the report looks at government actions in three areas - prevention, protection of victims and prosecution of criminals," said Pollard.

"(In Malaysia), protection for victims is uneven and often neither addresses the needs of the victim nor encourages victims to testify against traffickers," he said.

He offered assistance to Malaysia in relation to specialised training and counter-trafficking programmes in "areas where efforts are lagging".

"In the US, we are fighting this scourge (human trafficking) through a number of different means," he said.

"Since 2001, the US government has provided more than US$295 million to support anti-trafficking programmes in 120 countries... some of these may be of interest to Malaysia."

The programmes include support for rehabilitation and work training centres for victims, law enforcement training, special housing shelters for victims and training for immigration officials, medical personnel and social workers.

Pollard added that "this terrible crime can only be defeated by the joint efforts of legislators, law enforcement officers, prosecutors and non-government organisations working together and with their international counterparts".