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POVERTY AND CHILD

TRAFFICKING IN MALAYSIA:
CHARTING THE LEGAL
EFFORT
DINA IMAM SUPAAT
FACULTY OF SYARIAH AND LAW,
UNIVERSITI SAINS ISLAM MALAYSIA
LINA
Lina (not her real name) is only eight years old. At her age,
she should be in school, playing and studying, or enjoying time
with her friends. But Lina is not so lucky. Her days have been
dark and painful ever since her own father sold her to a
syndicate that exploited her sexually.

Everyday, Lina, whose hometown is Selangor, had to provide
sexual favours to men who were old enough to be her brother,
father or grandfather. She was controlled by a man simply
called "uncle", never knowing why she was treated the way
she was. She was unaware of her rights as a child.

Though most people do not realise it, such cases occur
frequently around us. The reality is that Lina is but a drop in the
ocean of child victims of trafficking. (Source:Bernama)
If you think that child trafficking only takes place in
countries, such as Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam
and Cambodia, then you are sorely mistaken.
Such sordid crimes are actually widespread in the
country.
Malaysian victims of child trafficking have been
rescued from countries, such as Canada, Japan,
Germany and the United States.
Today, Malaysia is not only a transit route for this
heinous crime but is also actively providing victims
and organising trafficking arrangements to
destination countries.
Malaysia is strategically located by land and sea in
Southeast Asia hence, it is famous amongst
traffickers.
WHAT is Child Trafficking?
Trafficking of children is a form of human trafficking.
Human trafficking is one of the most extreme forms
of exploitation that exist in the 21
st
century.
Traffickers show contempt for human life and deny
their victims the basic right to freedom.
Human trafficking is a global problem, which is
occurring in all societies.
Child trafficking is defined as the "recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harboring, and/or receipt"
of a child for the purpose of exploitation.
Child trafficking is about taking children out of their
protective environment and preying on their
vulnerability for the purpose of exploitation.
Though statistics regarding the magnitude of child
trafficking are difficult to obtain, the International Labour
Organization estimates that 1.2 million children (males
and females) are trafficked each year.
ILO Convention No. 182 (1999) on the Worst Forms of
Child Labour (WFCL) classifies trafficking among forms
of slavery or practices similar to slavery
The fact that human trafficking persists in democratic
countries indicates that there is a gap between the
principles we act upon and the societal beliefs we
preach: equality, liberty and the right to life.
We assume that these beliefs are deeply rooted in our
societies. However, human trafficking is challenging
democratic countries to reflect more closely on which
principles really drive our actions.
Section 2 of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-
Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007:

Trafficking in persons means all actions involved in
acquiring or maintaining the labour or services of a
person through coercion, and includes the act of
recruiting, conveying, transferring, harbouring,
providing or receiving a person.
WHAT is the route?
Malaysia is a country of origin, destination, and transit for
trafficking in children.
Children are trafficked to Malaysia from Cambodia,
China, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Laos,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Russia, Thailand, Uzbekistan,
and Vietnam.
Malaysians are trafficked to Australia, Canada, China,
Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Singapore.
Sabah is the main entrance point for Filipinos trafficked
for sex industry.
Malaysia is a country of transit for trafficking between
Thailand and the Philippines as well as between other
countries, such as Japan, Korea, and the United States.
Internal trafficking also occurs.


WHAT is the
prevalence?
35 babies were rescued from 2002-2005 and 47 people
arrested in connection with the trade. Baby-selling gangs
are thriving in Malaysia, fuelled by a shortage of infants
available for adoption.
The big demand for babies, especially among infertile
couples, has fuelled a lucrative but illegal adoption racket.
They are willing to pay a high price to meet their demand
because the supply is scarce.
The police discovered eight Indonesian women who were
forced to work as prostitutes and denied contraception so
that they produced babies which were later sold. The
syndicate wanted them to get pregnant and when they
do, the babies could be sold for a profit at prices ranging
from 20,000-30,000 (ringgit) and it is believed that the
babies were meant for a local market.


Indonesian women are also being smuggled into the eastern
Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo island, which borders the
Indonesian province of Kalimantan, and hidden until they give
birth. After they give birth to the babies, they are paid money
and the mothers will go back to Indonesia. Legally these babies
by virtue of birth are Malaysian citizens.

Babies are illegally trafficked for adoption in Malaysia from
Singapore. In May 2008, 23 people were arrested in Malaysia for
the illegal adoption sale of four Singaporean babies, aged 7
months to 1 year. The babies were bought from underprivileged
women for $200 and sold for about $6,000 each.

Malaysian children formed the majority of victims rescued when
police smashed 37 baby-trafficking syndicates in the country
between 2009 and 2012. Of the 97 babies and children rescued,
75 were Malaysians, 16 Indonesians, two Australians, two
Cambodians and one each from Myanmar and Bangladesh. 107
people were arrested, including 87 locals. Among those nabbed
were 67 women. It was learnt that foreign women who were
pregnant out of wedlock and locals who gave up their newborn
were paid between RM2,500 and RM4,500 for the babies.

Three Malaysians were sentenced to between four and
15 months in prison for child trafficking after they were
caught trying to smuggle Sri Lankan children to London
via Paris. The Malaysians were caught at Changi Airport
on February 7 with the three children, aged 11, 14 and
15.
Shangar Shanmugam, 39, was sentenced to 15 months
in jail while his sister, Patmavthi Shanmugam, 31, was
jailed for 10 months. Their friend, Vigiletchimi Suparayan,
61, was sentenced to four months in prison.
Shangar was promised 1,000 US dollars by a woman
known to him as Naga to deliver the children to London.
Naga made three Malaysian passports with false names
for the children at a Malaysian immigration office.

WHY are children
trafficked?
Children are trafficked for forced labour, domestic
labour, as child soldiers, as jockeys, for begging,
work on construction sites and plantations, drug
couriering, and child soldiering to exploitative or
slavery-like practices in the informal industrial sector.
but most children are trafficked for prostitution and
sexual exploitation.
Girls trafficked for forced labor and domestic work
often end up sexually exploited by their employers.
The vulnerability of these children is even greater
when they arrive in another country. Often they do
not have contact with their families and are at the
mercy of their employers

The trafficking in children - internally in countries,
across national borders and across continents - is
closely interlinked with:
(a) the demand for cheap malleable and docile
labour in sectors and,
(b) among employers where the working conditions
and the treatment grossly violates the human rights of
the children.

These are characterized by environments that are
unacceptable (the unconditional worst forms) as well
as dangerous to the health and the development of
the child (hazardous worst forms).
HOW are children trafficked?
Child trafficking can occur when children are
abducted from the streets, sold into sexual slavery
and forced marriage by parents, relatives, or in any
place where traffickers, pimps and recruiters prey
upon a child's vulnerabilities.
Chow Kit Foundation Fundraising and Advocacy Specialist Dr Hartini
Zainudin:

Children were more likely to agree to be transported from one place to
another for exploitation because of several factors.

Some are promised jobs at hotels or spas, or marriage and a happier life.
However, there are also others who are sold by their own families or
kidnapped by syndicates.

Currently, baby-selling is very prominent. Those who are childless usually buy
babies without knowing their (babies') backgrounds. It is a worrying trend
because there are always people willing to pay for the service.

This will definitely continue for some time, judging by the number of babies
being born out of wedlock, to women without identification documents and
to women whose nationality is not known -- all of which make it tougher for
them to raise their children. So, selling their babies is the easiest option for
them
WHAT are the factors?
Some of the common factors are local conditions that make
populations want to migrate in search of better conditions:
poverty, oppression, lack of human rights, lack of social or
economic opportunity, dangers from conflict or instability and
similar conditions.
Political instability, militarism, civil unrest, internal armed conflict
and natural disasters may result in an increase in trafficking.
The destabilization and displacement of populations increase
their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse through trafficking
and forced labour.
War and civil strife may lead to massive displacements of
populations, leaving orphans and street children extremely
vulnerable to trafficking.
These factors tend to exert pressures on victims that push them
into migration and hence into the control of traffickers, but other
factors that tend to pull potential victims can also be
significant.
WHAT is the mechanism?
Child trafficking takes place in three stages: recruitment,
movement, and exploitation.
Recruitment occurs when a child is approached by a recruiter, or
in some cases, directly approaches a recruiter themselves.
Recruitment is initiated in many different ways: adolescents may
be under pressure to contribute to their families, children may be
surrendered, kidnapped or abducted into trafficking, or families
may be trafficked together.
Then, movement will occur - locally, regionally, and/or
internationally - through a variety of transportation types, including
by car, train, boat, or foot.
Ultimately, the final goal of child trafficking is exploitation, whereby
traffickers use the services of children to garner illegal profit.
Exploitation can take place in a variety of forms, including forced
labor, sexual exploitation, and child begging, among other
practices.

Child trafficking is often conceptualized using the
economic model of supply and demand.
Specifically, those who are trafficked constitute the
"supply," while the traffickers, and all those who
profit from the exploitation, provide the "demand."
Two types of demand are defined: consumer
demand and derived demand.
Consumer demand is generated by people who
actively or passively buy the products or services of
trafficked labor eg a tourist purchasing a t-shirt that
has been made by a trafficked child.
Derived demand, on the other hand, is generated
by people who directly profit from the practice of
trafficking, such as pimps or corrupt factory owners.

WHO are at risk?
Statelessness, a recognized human trafficking
vulnerability factor, remains an issue in Malaysia.
Many children are stateless because the government
refuses to register their birth due to inadequate proof of
their parents' marriage.
It is estimated that the number of stateless persons is as
many as 30,000. Without birth certificates, government
officials deny stateless persons access to education,
health care, and the right to own property.
This puts them at risk of seeking unofficial employment
opportunities, thus putting these people at risk of
trafficking.


Poverty is the pre-condition that makes it easier for
traffickers to operate.
The World Bank estimates that there are around 2% of
the population are living in poverty but NGOs estimate
at 19%.
Various international organizations, including the ILO and
the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human
Trafficking have linked child trafficking to poverty: Living
in poverty has been found to increase children's
vulnerability to trafficking.
However, poverty is only one of many social "risk factors"
that can lead to trafficking.
Often children experience several risk factors at the
same time, and one of them may act as a trigger that
sets the trafficking event in motion.
This is sometimes called 'poverty plus,' a situation in
which poverty does not by itself lead to a person being
trafficked, but where a 'plus' factor such as illness
combines with poverty to increase vulnerability.


Poverty and wealth are relative concepts which lead to
both migration and trafficking patterns in which victims
move from conditions of extreme poverty to conditions
of less-extreme poverty.
In that context, the rapid expansion of broadcast and
telecommunication media, including the Internet, across
the developing world or rural areas may have increased
the desire to migrate to developed countries or to urban
areas and, with it, the vulnerability of would-be migrants
to traffickers.
The practice of entrusting poor children to more affluent
friends or relatives may create vulnerability.
Some parents sell their children, not just for the money,
but also in the hope that their children will escape a
situation of chronic poverty and move to a place where
they will have a better life and more opportunities.
Girls are at risk.
An accurate understanding of child trafficking must
incorporate an analysis of gender inequality.
Specifically, in many countries, girls are at a higher
risk of being trafficked, particularly into sexual
exploitation.
The devaluation of girls in a society makes them
disproportionately vulnerable to trafficking.

WHAT is the
government response?
In 2002, Malaysia passed the Child Act 2001, which provides
for protection of children in need. The act imposes a
punishment of imprisonment for up to 15 years and a fine on
anyone who (a) sells, lets for hire, buys, hires, or otherwise
disposes of a child for the purpose of prostitution within or
outside of Malaysia; (b) procures a child for prostitution within
or outside of Malaysia; (c) brings, takes out of Malaysia, or
assists in bringing or taking out of Malaysia by false pretenses,
false representation, fraudulent, or deceitful means a child for
prostitution; (d) brings into Malaysia, receives, or harbors a
child, knowing that a child has been procured for purposes of
prostitution; (e) detains a child in a brothel against the childs
will; (f) detains a child in a place against a childs will with the
intent of employing a child in prostitution; (g) advertises a
child for purposes of prostitution or seeks information for that
purpose; or (h) attempts to do any of those acts.

Aiding, abetting, or controlling the prostitution of a child is
punishable by imprisonment for up to three years, a fine, and
whipping of not more than six strokes. The same punishment is
imposed on anyone who engages or hires, for any valuable
consideration, a child to provide services for that persons
sexual gratification.
The act criminalizes participating in the unlawful transfer of
possession, custody, or control of a child. Punishment is
imprisonment for up to five years, a fine, or both. The same
punishment applies to any person who unlawfully harbors a
child with respect to whom the temporary or permanent
possession, custody, or control has been transferred or
conferred for valuable consideration by any other person
within or outside Malaysia.
The act punishes importation of a child by false pretenses by
imprisonment for up to five years, a fine, or both. The same
punishment applies to anyone who takes or sends out a child,
whether within or outside of Malaysia, without appropriate
consent of the person having lawful custody.

SUHAKAM, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia,
was established under the Human Rights Commission of
Malaysia Act 1999. The functions of SUHAKAM, as set out
in section 4(1) of the act, are to promote awareness of
and provide education relating to human rights; to
advise and assist the government in formulating
legislation and procedures and recommend the
necessary measures to be taken; to recommend to the
government with regard to subscription or accession of
treaties and other international instruments in the field of
human rights; and to inquire into complaints regarding
infringements of human rights.

In 2007, Malaysia adopted the Anti-Trafficking in
Persons Act which was then amended in 2010 to
include Anti Smuggling of Migrants. The legislation
states that the government will take action to
implement guidelines, training for officers, and
services that will protect the rights of victims. The
Act established the Council for Anti-trafficking in
Persons which then created several shelters for
victims of trafficking.
The Malaysian government in collaboration with its
agencies has outlined a National Action Plan
against Trafficking in Persons (2010-2015) as a
preventive measure.
The Act also provides for criminal sanctions to
protect children as follows:

Offences under ATIP
Section Offence Penalty
12 Trafficking in persons not being a child for the
purpose of exploitation
On conviction,
imprisonment not
exceeding fifteen (15) years
and liable to a fine
13 Trafficking in persons not being a child for the
purpose of exploitation by one or more of the
following means:
(a) Threat; (b) Use of force or other forms of
coercion; (c) Abduction; (d) Fraud;
(e) Deception; (f) Abuse of power;
(g) Abuse of the position of vulnerability of a
person to an act of trafficking in persons; or
(h) The giving or receiving of payments or
benefits to obtain the consent of a person
having control over the trafficked person.

On conviction,
imprisonment not less
than three (3) years but not
exceeding twenty (20)
years and liable to a fine
Offences under ATIP
Section Offence Penalty
14
Trafficking in persons being a
child for the purpose of
exploitation
On conviction, imprisonment not less than
three (3) years but not exceeding twenty (20)
years and liable to a fine
15
Offence of profiting from
exploitation of a trafficked
person
On conviction, imprisonment not exceeding
fifteen (15) years and liable to a fine of five
hundred thousand ringgit but not exceeding
one million ringgit and shall also be liable to
forfeiture of the profits from the offence
15A
Offence of bringing in transit a
trafficked person through
Malaysia (land, sea or air) or
arranging or facilitating such
act
On conviction, imprisonment not exceeding
seven (7) years and liable to a fine
Since 2008, the prosecutors have managed to secure a
number of criminal convictions against perpetrators of
child trafficking including those seeking sexual services
from the victims.

Authorities reported initiating 174 charges against 51
individuals under the anti-trafficking law in 2010. The
judiciary convicted 11 sex trafficking offenders and three
individuals involved in labor trafficking, sentencing them
to three to eight years imprisonment; this is compared to
seven trafficking offenders convicted during the previous
year.
The acquittal rate of alleged trafficking offenders was 68
percent during 2010, a rate attributed by observers to
the lack of adequate victim-witness protection, victim
assistance incentives, and poor judicial training on
human trafficking.

NGOs have reported that the police often fail or
refuse to investigate complaints of confiscation of
passports and travel documents or withholding of
wages especially with regards to domestic
workers as possible trafficking offenses.
The authority did not report in 2010 any criminal
prosecutions of employers who subjected workers
to conditions of forced labor or labor recruiters who
used deceptive practices and debt bondage to
compel migrant workers into involuntary servitude.
Nor were any government officials convicted of
trafficking-related complicity in 2010, even though
there are reports of collusion between police and
trafficking offenders.

Based on the statistics provided by the
enforcement agencies and the Secretariat of the
Council for Anti- Trafficking in Persons and Anti-
Smuggling of Migrants (MAPO) under the purview of
the Ministry of Home Affairs Malaysia; from February
28, 2008 to November 30, 2012, a total of 591 cases
have been reported relating to various types of
human exploitation with 797 people arrested for
being involved in the crime.
During the span of five years, around 3, 363 victims
of human traffickers managed to obtain Interim
Protection Order (IPO) while another 1, 235 were
given protection order.
These victims of sexual exploitation, forced labour
and involuntary domestic servitude amongst others
are placed in undisclosed shelter homes.
Children are the most affected victims compared
to men and women. From the year 2008 2010,
about 74 per cent of the total victims rescued are
children followed by women at 19 per cent and
men at seven per cent.
Most of the time, trafficking victims are deeply
affected emotionally and psychologically. Heartless
traffickers take away everything from these victims,
robbing them of their money, passports, dignity and
even their lives.


A number of cases have been reported against
government officials for their direct involvement in human
trafficking but so far only one offender has been
prosecuted in December 2008 under the 2007 anti-
trafficking law.
In 2009, the U.S Senate Foreign Relations Committee made
a formal report stating that Malaysian immigration officials
involvement in trafficking and extorting Burmese refugees
to the Malaysia-Thai border.
Upon arrival at the border, the traffickers take possessions of
the migrants and demand ransom on individual basis.
Freedom is possible only when the money demands are
met.
The Royal Malaysian Police Force investigated the
allegations with the assistance of the Immigration
Department however; no officials were arrested,
prosecuted or convicted for the involvement in trafficking.

This indicates that the government yet to develop
mechanisms to screen victims of trafficking
effectively back then.
In 2010, it was reported that seven immigration
department officials who were the employees of
the Immigration Department under the jurisdiction
of the Ministry of Home Affairs Malaysia were
involved in human trafficking activities in the
country.
These accused together with two foreigners were
detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for
indefinite detention without trial but later on they
were pardoned for repenting.

HOW to combat child
trafficking?
Requires effort from the country of origin, destination and
joint efforts:
Educate the society, create awareness.
Foster social, economic and political stability, and the
reduction both of migration caused by deep poverty and
of supply factors of trafficking.
Improving childrens access to educational and
vocational opportunities and increasing the level of school
attendance, in particular by girls and minority groups.
Implementing measures to reduce the invisibility of
exploitation. A multi-agency programme of monitoring,
administrative controls and intelligence gathering on the
labour markets including sex industry.
.
Encouraging gender sensitization and education on
equal and respectful relationships between the
sexes, thus preventing violence against women and
female children.
Adopting or strengthening legislative, educational,
social, cultural or other measures and, where
applicable, penal legislation, including through
bilateral and multilateral cooperation, to
discourage the demand that fosters all forms of
exploitation of children, that leads to trafficking.

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