The police in a Malaysian state was criticised Friday over a proposal to ban the entry of single women travelling alone from mainland China as part of efforts to curb prostitution.

Such a ban would be discriminatory against women and the Sarawak state authorities should instead tackle the root causes of trafficking and take firm action against the recruiters and pimps, a rights group said.

Sarawak police said this week they would submit a proposal to the state government calling for the ban, citing statistics that at least 40 women from China enter the state on Borneo island daily.

Many of them had been caught in nightclubs for prostitution, other vices and overstaying, state deputy police chief Abang Abdul Wahap Abang Julai said.

But the Tenaganita rights group said that the arrests of the women as well as investigations should have provided sufficient information on how the women were trafficked and forced into prostitution.

"With the information, the enforcement agencies should have tracked down the traffickers and identified the syndicates," said Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez.

"The immigration department should stop further victimising the women by charging them for illegal entry or for overstaying in the country," she said.

"The continued criminalising of the women only encourages more trafficking of women as the pimps and brokers go free," she said pointing out current Malaysian laws allowed for action to be taken against the perpetrators.

Tenaganita is a Malaysian-based labour rights group that campaigns for the rights of women and foreign workers.

Political will

New strategies needed to be deployed so that local enforcement agencies were not involved in investigations, she said adding there could be a "high probability" of the involvement of local officers.

"The situation demands a strong political will to deal with trafficking of women and children into Malaysia," she said.

"This demands a very concerted effort with China and other countries where the trafficking route is identified."

In the past, local police have rescued many mainland Chinese women from the clutches of crime syndicates. They claim they were lured to Malaysia by promises of lucrative jobs. Prostitution is illegal in predominantly Muslim Malaysia.