M'sia confident of attaining tier one in fight against human trafficking: Zahid

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is positive of attaining the Tier One by complying fully with the minimum standards to curb human trafficking crimes, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
According to the United States annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report released by the United States State Department on June 27, Malaysia has upgraded to Tier Two as a country that did not fully meet the minimum standards of the United States Human Trafficking Victims Protection Act 2000 but made vital efforts to bring itself to compliance with the standards.
Ahmad Zahid said the Tier One target for 2020 could be achieved if Malaysia received the cooperation of source countries that posed problems to Malaysia.
"This is because the one that bears the burden of this issue is our country," Ahmad Zahid, who is Home Minister, told the Dewan Rakyat today.
He said a total of 254 human trafficking cases has been reported as of June 2017 and 67 convictions were obtained.
He was replying to a question from Datuk Raime Unggi (Tenom-BN) relating to factors that contributed to the improvement in Malaysia's position on the United States State Department report on the US TIP Report as well as Malaysia's action in maintaining the momentum of this achievement.
The US TIP Report 2017 involves assessing 187 countries on efforts to fight against human trafficking crimes.
Ahmad Zahid said, among factors Malaysia was now at Tier two was the implementation of investigations and conviction of human trafficking cases and participation at high level committee meetings.
The government also forged cooperation with non governmental organisations to improve aspects of protection to victims of trafficking besides updating existing regulations, he said.
He told the house that local companies are urged to offer jobs to human trafficking victims in the country.
"We have provided some assistance to make available jobs for the human trafficking victims, as of now, several companies from the United States have offered jobs to them, and Malaysian companies are advised to follow suit."
Ahmad Zahid said Putrajaya was collaborating with two NGOs –Tenaganita and Good Shepherd Community Centre – in running a pilot project to manage human trafficking victims.
The government has funded a sum of RM1,386,500 to the two NGOs.