PETALING JAYA: Malaysia remains in Tier 3 of the US State Department’s annual human trafficking report.
The report said the government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.
Malaysia was placed on the Tier 2 Watchlist from 2018 to 2020 before dropping to Tier 3, the lowest tier, last year.
The report added that the government has continued to conflate human trafficking and migrant smuggling crimes, which impeded law enforcement and victim identification efforts.
Yesterday, the United States added Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei and Macau to a human trafficking blacklist that already counts Malaysia, alleging weak efforts to stop forced sex work or assist migrant laborers.
“As we tackle issues like climate and corruption throughout our diplomacy, we also have to address how they intersect with trafficking in persons,“ Secretary of State Antony Blinken said as he presented it.
