The State Department has greased the wheels for Malaysia to join the Trans Pacific Partnership after it upgraded the country’s status in the agency’s annual report on human trafficking.
The tier two designation–which, along with the report, was revealed on Monday—was made despite the fact that the State Department itself concluded that Malaysia does not meet “the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.”
“The government increased investigations and prosecutions, but obtained only three trafficking convictions—a disproportionate number of convictions compared to the large scale of the human trafficking problem in Malaysia,” the report noted.
In June, When Congress granted President Obama Trade Promotion Authority, it put special restrictions on negotiations with countries given the lowest ranking in the State Department’s yearly Trafficking in Persons report: tier three.
“So it means, if nothing changes, Malaysia should not be in this agreement,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said, referring to the TPP, when fast-track passed the Senate in May. “And if the president relaxes or un-designates Malaysia as a tier three designation, it would be a tragedy.”
In February, the United Nations special rapporteur on human trafficking visited Malaysia. Like US officials, Maria Grazia Giammarinaro praised state initiatives to combat the use of slave labor, but noted that many forms of it are “particularly widespread in the country.”
And unlike the State Department, the Italian judge described the rate of human trafficking prosecutions themselves—38 in 2014—as being “low.”
“Moreover, it has been brought to the Special Rapporteur’s attention that, on several occasions, credible requests to further investigate cases of trafficking of children for begging in well-known hotspots have remained unheeded,” her office noted in a report published last month.
Migrant workers, the investigation concluded, are typically targeted “for arduous and unpleasant work in the agricultural, construction and manufacturing sectors and domestic work.” Malaysia “relies largely on foreign migrant workers,” she remarked, with nearly a quarter of the labor force coming from abroad as part of a “low wage economic growth strategy.” Almost half of those foreign workers are undocumented.
Giammarinaro also highlighted problematic aspects of government initiatives to fight human trafficking. Victims “rescued” in raids by law enforcement officers were subject to “physical and emotional abuses,” and, if undocumented, are deported within three months after being held without freedom of movement. Their images were also “regularly feature in the media” despite privacy protections supposedly codified into law eight years ago by the Malaysian government.
Although American officials have stressed that Malaysia has made “significant efforts” to combat human trafficking, they have been making similar assessments for years. According to a diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks, the US Embassy in Malaysia said in 2009 that “there is forward momentum that justifies reassessing Malaysia to Tier 2 Watch List now.”
The team that writes the annual report, Undersecretary of State Sarah Sewall noted Monday morning at a presentation celebrating the publication, “works to connect trafficking concerns with broader foreign policy goals.”
