Mapo to work with international airlines to curb human trafficking

KUALA LUMPUR: The Council for Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (Mapo) will expand its cooperation with international airlines in the fight against human trafficking, according to Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed.
"So far we have worked with two local airlines, namely Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia, and are expanding the cooperation with Malindo Air.
"The crew and staff are trained to identify passengers who are suspected of being victims of human trafficking by various means, including looking at their body language before alerting the airport security personnel," he said, after appearing as a guest on Bernama Radio's Ala Carte Pagi programme.
Nur Jazlan said the authorities would also tighten security control to identify syndicate groups before departure and upon arrival at the airport, heeding the United Nations (UN) call for action to prevent human trafficking.
He said low cost carrier services facilitated syndicates to smuggle people into the country via air, instead of using land or sea routes from neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, which was deemed more risky and time consuming.
According to Nur Jazlan, a total of 1,124 trafficking victims rescued in 2016 were placed in shelter homes in the country, while data on the victims rescued last year was still being tabulated.
"Most of those rescued are women from neighbouring countries used as sex slaves," he added. — Bernama