INTERVIEW Malaysia’s upgrade in the Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) 2015, has been defended by the United States of America Ambassador to Malaysia, Joseph Yun, who cited ‘ significant efforts ’ of the  Malaysian government in tackling the issue.

Even last year, when Malaysia’s ranking dropped to the lowest possible ranking of Tier 3, Yun said Malaysia was 'substantively' still on the Tier 2 Watch List because efforts were being made even then.

“What do you think Malaysia’s tier ranking was last year? It was Tier 2 Watch List but it was automatically downgraded to Tier 3.

“Because if you are in the Tier 2 Watch List for more than four years, you get downgraded. So, substantively, Malaysia was on the Tier 2 Watch List,” he said in an interview with Malaysiakini at the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

Yun claims that since Malaysia does not meet the minimum standards of anti-human trafficking efforts set under the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), it is making efforts to meet those standards, so that must mean the country is either a Tier 2 or Tier 2 Watch List offender.

Malaysia does not belong in Tier 3 together with the other countries that make no effort to combat human trafficking, such as North Korea, Yun explained.

Asked what would count as ‘significant effort’ to combat human trafficking, Yun said examples would include issues such as whether or not a country has a legal framework to do so, whether it is expending more resources to tackle the crime and whether the level of collusion between human traffickers and law enforcement agencies was going down.

This year’s TIP report was released on Monday night, in which Malaysia was controversially upgraded from Tier 3 to the Tier 2 Watch List.

The upgrade came after the US Congress approved ‘fast track’ authority for US President Barack Obama to expedite the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) on trade, but not with countries that rank Tier 3 on the TIP report.

This raised concerns among lawmakers and activists, both in the US and in Malaysia, that the upgrade was spurred by the desire to keep Malaysia in the TPPA negotiations.

Upgrade not done for the TPPA

However, news agency Reuters quoted US Undersecretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Sarah Sewall, as rejecting allegations that the upgrade was influenced by political trade considerations, rather than human rights.

Adding to the denial, Yun said the Malaysian government’s efforts to combat human trafficking cited in the report took place long before the TPPA issue was raised.

“If you look at the items that I have mentioned, including the increase in prosecution, increase in victim identification, what they have done in terms of protection of victims, launching of big discussions and (legal) amendments, those were all done before the TPPA issue ever came up,” he said.

The reporting period of the TIP 2015 report was from April 1, 2014, to March 30, 2015. It is prepared annually by the US State Department.

Yun stressed that a Tier 2 Watch List ranking is not a clean bill of health for Malaysia and significant problems still remained, such as the low conviction rate of human traffickers prosecuted.

If everything had been fine, Malaysia would have been in Tier 1 instead, he said.

“Nobody is saying that Malaysia is a Tier 1 country; nobody is saying that it is a Tier 2 country. But we are also saying that it is not on Tier 3 either.

“So this is completely ‘wrong track’ to say that we did it for TPPA reasons,” Yun said.

A Tier 1 ranking means that a country is meeting the minimum standards of tackling human trafficking, as stipulated in the TVPA, while a Tier 2 ranking means the country does not meet those standards but is making ‘significant efforts’ to do so.

A ‘Tier 2 Watch List’ refers to Tier 2 countries where the human trafficking situation is serious enough to warrant special attention.

A Tier 3 ranking is for countries that do not meet the standard and are not making significant efforts to do so, and the ranking may result in US aid sanctions.

'Many, many problems here'

Under amendments to the TVPA that came into effect since the 2011 report, a country that is on the Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years will be automatically downgraded to Tier 3 on the third year, if there is no improvement.

However, the US state secretary has the power to waive the automatic downgrade for a further two consecutive years, after which the country in question must be upgraded to Tier 2 or downgraded to Tier 3. The latter case was what happened to Malaysia in last year’s report.

To a question about the discovery of mass graves of suspected human trafficking victims at the Malaysia-Thailand border and Malaysia’s handling of the influx of refugees from Myanmar, Yun said it still boiled down to whether the government was tackling these issues.

“There are problems in the country of origination and in the country of destination. These are serious problems and nobody is denying that they are also related to trafficking in persons.

“But the question is whether your government making the efforts to do so? That is the kind of the test. Nobody is saying that this is a Tier 1 country. There are many, many problems here.

“We would like to see, for example, much higher conviction rates. We would like to see much bigger arrests. We would like to see the ringleaders caught and prosecuted.

“We would like to see better victim protection and we would like to see much more active prevention efforts,” Yun added.