VZCZCXYZ0004
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #1158 1632125
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 122059Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY KUALA LUMPUR IMMEDIATE 0000

UNCLAS STATE 061158 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG MY
SUBJECT: MALAYSIA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND 
DEMARCHE 
 
REF: A. (A) STATE 59732 
     ¶B. (B) STATE 005577 
 
¶1. This is an action cable; see paras 5 through 7 and 10. 
 
¶2. On June 16, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary will 
release the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a 
press conference in the Department's press briefing room. 
This release will receive substantial coverage in domestic 
and foreign news outlets.  Until the time of the Secretary's 
June 16 press conference, any public release of the Report or 
country narratives contained therein is prohibited. 
 
¶3. The Department is hereby providing Post with advance press 
guidance to be used on June 16 or thereafter.  Also provided 
is demarche language to be used in informing the Government 
of Malaysia of its tier ranking and the TIP Report's imminent 
release.  The text of the TIP Report country narrative is 
provided, both for use in informing the Government of 
Malaysia and in any local media release by Post's public 
affairs section on June 16 or thereafter.  Drawing on 
information provided below in paras 8 and 9, Post may provide 
the host government with the text of the TIP Report narrative 
no earlier than 1200 noon local time Monday June 15 for WHA, 
AF, EUR, and NEA countries and OOB local time Tuesday June 16 
for SCA and EAP posts.  Please note, however, that any public 
release of the Report's information should not/not precede 
the Secretary's release at 10:00 am EDT on June 16. 
 
¶4. The entire TIP Report will be available on-line at 
www.state.gov/g/tip shortly after the Secretary's June 16 
release.  Hard copies of the Report will be pouched to posts 
in all countries appearing on the Report.  The Secretary's 
statement at the June 16 press event, and the statement of 
and fielding of media questions by G/TIP,s Director and 
Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Ambassador-at-Large Luis 
CdeBaca, will be available on the Department's website 
shortly after the June 16 event.  Ambassador de Baca will 
also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign 
embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
¶5. Action Request: No earlier than 12 noon local time on 
Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA posts and OOB local 
time on Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts, please inform 
the appropriate official in the Government of Malaysia of the 
June 16 release of the 2009 TIP Report, drawing on the points 
in para 9 (at Post's discretion) and including the text of 
the country narrative provided in para 8.  For countries 
where the State Department has lowered the tier ranking, it 
is particularly important to advise governments prior to the 
Report being released in Washington on June 16. 
 
¶6. Action Request continued:  Please note that, for those 
countries which will not receive an "action plan" with 
specific recommendations for improvement, posts should draw 
host governments' attention to the areas for improvement 
identified in the 2009 Report, especially highlighted in the 
"Recommendations" section of the second paragraph of the 
narrative text.  This engagement is important to establishing 
the framework in which the government's performance will be 
judged for the 2010 Report.  If posts have questions about 
which governments will receive an action plan, or how they 
may follow up on the recommendations in the 2009 Report, 
please contact G/TIP and the appropriate regional bureau. 
 
¶7. Action Request continued: On June 16, please be prepared 
to answer media inquiries on the Report's release using the 
press guidance provided in para 11.  If Post wishes, a local 
press statement may be released on or after 10:30 am EDT June 
16, drawing on the press guidance and the text of the TIP 
Report's country narrative provided in para 8. 
 
¶8. Begin Final Text of Malaysia,s country narrative in the 
2009 TIP Report: 
 
-------------------------------- 
MALAYSIA (TIER 3) 
-------------------------------- 
Malaysia is a destination and, to a lesser extent, a source 
and transit country for women and children trafficked for the 
purpose of commercial sexual exploitation and for men, women, 
and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labor. 
Malaysia is mainly a destination country for men, women, and 
children who migrate willingly from Indonesia, Nepal, 
Thailand, the People,s Republic of China (PRC), the 
Philippines, Burma, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, 
and Vietnam for work ) usually legal, contractual labor ) 
and are subsequently subjected to conditions of involuntary 
servitude in the domestic, agricultural, food service, 
construction, plantation, industrial, and fisheries sectors. 
Some foreign women and girls are also victims of commercial 
sexual exploitation.  Some migrant workers are victimized by 
their employers, employment agents, or traffickers who supply 
migrant laborers and victims of sex trafficking.  Some 
victims suffer conditions including physical and sexual 
abuse, forced drug use, debt bondage, non-payment of wages, 
threats, confinement, and withholding of travel documents to 
restrict their freedom of movement.  Some female migrants 
from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, 
Burma, Mongolia, and the PRC are forced into prostitution 
after being lured to Malaysia with promises of legitimate 
employment.  Individual employment agents, which are 
sometimes used as fronts for human trafficking, sold women 
and girls into brothels, karaoke bars, or passed them to sex 
traffickers.  There were reports of Malaysians, specifically 
women and girls from indigenous groups and rural areas, 
trafficked within the country for labor and commercial sexual 
exploitation.  Burmese migrants, including some Burmese 
registered with the United Nations as refugees, a legal 
status not recognized by the Malaysian government, are 
trafficked for forced labor.  To a lesser extent, some 
Malaysian women, primarily of Chinese ethnicity and from 
indigenous groups and rural areas, are trafficked abroad to 
destinations including Singapore, Hong Kong, France, and the 
United Kingdom, for commercial sexual exploitation. 
 
There were a number of credible reports of Malaysian 
immigration authorities, involvement in the trafficking of 
Burmese refugees from immigration detention centers to the 
Thai-Malaysian border.  Several credible sources reported 
that immigration officials sold refugees for approximately 
$200 per person to traffickers operating along Thailand,s 
southern border.  In turn, the traffickers demanded ransom ) 
ranging from $300 for children to $575 for adults ) in 
exchange for their freedom.  Informed sources estimated 20 
percent of the victims were unable to pay the ransom, and 
were sold for the purpose of labor and commercial sexual 
exploitation.  The Malaysian and Indonesian governments did 
not amend or replace a 2006 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) 
between the two countries covering the employment of 
Indonesian women as domestic servants in Malaysia.  The MOU 
authorizes Malaysian employers to confiscate and hold the 
passport of the domestic employee throughout the term of 
employment.  Although the MOU stated that domestic workers 
should be paid directly and be given time off in lieu of 
overtime, it remained common practice for employers to 
deposit wages with recruiting agencies as repayment for 
debts.  NGOs reported that many Indonesian household workers 
were required to work 14 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week. 
 
The Government of Malaysia does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is 
not making significant efforts to do so, despite some 
progress in enforcing the country,s new anti-trafficking 
law.  While the government took initial actions under the 
anti-trafficking law against sex trafficking, it has yet to 
fully address trafficking in persons issues, particularly 
labor trafficking in Malaysia.  Credible allegations, 
including those released in an April 2009 formal report by 
the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of involvement 
of Malaysian immigration officials in trafficking and 
extorting Burmese refugees overshadowed initial steps by the 
Immigration Department to address human trafficking.  The 
Royal Malaysian Police is investigating the allegations with 
the cooperation of the Immigration Department, as publicly 
confirmed by the Prime Minister, but no officials were 
arrested, prosecuted, or convicted for involvement in 
trafficking during the reporting period.  The government did 
not develop mechanisms to screen effectively victims of 
trafficking in vulnerable groups.  The government also 
continued to allow for the confiscation of passports by 
employers of migrant workers ) a common practice in 
Malaysia.  This practice is recognized by many in the 
international anti-trafficking community as facilitating 
trafficking.  The practice of withholding the salaries of 
foreign domestic workers for three to six months so the 
employer can recover the levy paid to hire the worker 
remained widely practiced.  As a regional economic leader 
approaching developed nation status, Malaysia has the 
resources and government infrastructure to do more in 
addressing trafficking in persons. 
 
Recommendations for Malaysia:  Fully implement and enforce 
the comprehensive anti-trafficking in persons law; increase 
the number of prosecutions, convictions, and sentences for 
both sex and labor trafficking; adopt and disseminate 
proactive procedures to identify victims of trafficking among 
vulnerable groups such as migrant workers and foreign women 
and children arrested for prostitution; apply stringent 
criminal penalties to those involved in fraudulent labor 
recruitment or exploitation o forced labor; ensure that 
victims of trafficking are not threatened or otherwise 
punished for crimes committed as a result of being 
trafficked; re-examine existing MOUs with source countries to 
incorporate victim protection and revoke passport or travel 
document confiscation; increase efforts to prosecute and 
convict public officials who profit from or are involved in 
trafficking; expand the training of law enforcement, 
immigration, prosecutors, and judges on the use of the 2007 
trafficking law; implement and support a comprehensive and 
visible anti-trafficking awareness campaign directed at 
employers and clients of the sex trade; and increase efforts 
to prosecute and convict public officials who profit from, or 
are involved in trafficking, or who exploit victims. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
The Government of Malaysia made some progress in 
investigating sex trafficking offenses and punishing 
trafficking offenders during the reporting period, but has 
not demonstrated efforts to investigate, prosecute, or 
convict offenders of labor trafficking.  Malaysian law 
prohibits all forms of human trafficking through its July 
2007 comprehensive anti-trafficking law, which prescribes 
penalties that are commensurate with those prescribed for 
other grave offenses, such as rape.  In December 2008, the 
government convicted its first trafficking offender under the 
2007 anti-trafficking law; an Indian national convicted of 
forcing a female domestic worker into prostitution was 
sentenced to eight years in prison.  The government also 
initiated prosecutions against an additional six alleged 
traffickers, one of whom fled while on bail.  Although there 
were credible reports of government officials, direct 
involvement in human trafficking, none were arrested, 
prosecuted, or punished for trafficking.  The Prime Minister 
and Inspector General of Police reported that the government 
is actively investigating the allegations.  In July 2008, the 
Director-General of Immigration and his Deputy 
Director-General were arrested for graft and corruption 
involving the acceptance of bribes for issuance of visas and 
visitation passes.  Informed observers speculate this 
corruption facilitated trafficking in persons.  There were 
reports of a significant number of migrant laborers 
trafficked to Malaysia and widespread media reporting of the 
trafficking conditions many of these workers face.  The 
government did not report 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. 
 
During the reporting period, there were several NGO and media 
reports of groups of foreign workers subjected to conditions 
of forced labor in Malaysia.  In August 2008, following an 
investigative news report, more than 1,000 foreign workers at 
a Malaysian factory producing apparel for a U.S. company were 
found subjected to squalid living conditions, confiscation of 
their passports, withheld wages, and exploitative wage 
deductions ) conditions indicative of forced labor. 
Following its own investigation, the U.S. company stated that 
it found major labor violations committed by the local 
factory, though a Malaysian government official reportedly 
responded by saying that the local factory,s management did 
not breach any labor laws.  Moreover, the Malaysian 
government did not respond with a criminal investigation of 
the allegations. 
 
In February 2009, a Malaysian newspaper revealed a case of 
140 Bangladeshi workers locked in a small apartment.  The 
workers each reportedly paid recruiters $5,000 to $13,000 to 
find them jobs in Malaysia; however, the recruiters passed 
the workers to a Malaysian employment agency, which upon 
their arrival in Malaysia, confiscated their passports and 
work permits and did not pay their wages for three to six 
months in most cases, although some individuals were not paid 
in more than a year.  The Malaysian government is 
investigating the case as a labor dispute rather than a human 
trafficking case.  In 2008, a local NGO coordinated with 
police in Sarawak to rescue 17 male Cambodians forced to work 
on commercial fishing boats and repatriated them to Cambodia. 
 The government did not prosecute any employers who 
confiscated passports of migrant workers or confined them to 
the workplace.  Some employers who hired foreign migrant 
workers held the wages of their employees in  escrow, until 
completion of a contract. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
While Malaysia showed modest efforts to protect victims of 
sex trafficking during the reporting period, its efforts to 
protect victims of labor trafficking remained inadequate. 
Numerous source country governments of migrant workers in 
Malaysia expressed concern about the lack of legal 
protections in place for foreign workers, particularly those 
subjected to involuntary servitude.  There was no widespread 
effort by the Government of Malaysia to identify trafficking 
victims among vulnerable migrant groups, such as girls and 
women detained for involvement in prostitution or the 
thousands of undocumented migrant workers rounded up by RELA, 
a government-sponsored public security auxiliary force.  As a 
result, some unidentified victims, including children, 
detained by immigration authorities were routinely processed 
as illegal migrants and held in prisons or illegal migrant 
detention facilities prior to deportation.  In some cases, 
especially those involving deportation over land borders, 
this made victims vulnerable to being re-trafficked by 
traffickers operating at the borders such as along the 
Malaysian-Indonesian border on Borneo.  Police reported 
rescuing about 2,000 foreign women and minors forced into 
prostitution during raids on brothels in 2008.  The 
government deported or voluntarily repatriated most of the 
victims to their home countries, referring some to their 
respective embassy shelters and processing a limited number 
as victims under the anti-trafficking law.  The Ministry for 
Women, Family, and Community Development continued to run two 
trafficking shelters, which held suspected and confirmed 
trafficking victims until they were repatriated to their home 
countries.  In 2008, the Ministry renovated a third shelter 
in the East Malaysian state of Sabah.  In 2008, the police 
referred 98 potential trafficking victims to the government 
shelters in Kuala Lumpur, 34 of which were certified by 
magistrates as officially recognized trafficking victims. 
Police also referred hundreds of suspected trafficking 
victims to local and diplomatic missions operating victims, 
shelters; the government cooperated with the embassies, 
repatriation of victims, but did not offer other assistance. 
Foreign migrant laborers, legal and illegal, lacked regular 
access to legal counsel in cases of contract violations and 
abuse, although in a small percentage of cases workers filed 
complaints under the labor laws.  Some suspected trafficking 
victims continued to be housed at immigration detention 
centers pending repatriation.  The government offered no 
facilities for male trafficking victims.  While victims may 
file a civil suit against exploiters under Malaysian law, 
they are unable to work while their suit is being considered, 
thus discouraging such attempts at restitution.  Immigration 
authorities did not screen foreign women arrested for 
prostitution for identification as trafficking victims, but 
instead processed them for quick deportation.  The government 
does not provide legal alternatives to the removal of victims 
to countries where they may face hardship or retribution. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
Malaysia made limited efforts to prevent trafficking in 
persons over the last year.  Senior officials, including the 
Prime Minister, Inspector General of Police, and the Minister 
for Women, Family, and Community Development, spoke out more 
routinely against trafficking crimes, and the 
government-influenced media carried numerous reports that 
raised awareness of trafficking.  The Women,s Ministry 
developed information brochures on trafficking in English and 
Malay for NGOs to distribute to the public, and started a 
women,s hotline for victims of trafficking.  The government 
condoned the confiscation of passports by employers. 
Employers passed the government,s &immigration levy8 on to 
the low-skilled workers, which facilitated debt bondage. 
There were no visible measures taken by the government to 
reduce the demand for forced labor or for commercial sex 
acts.  Protection officers from the Women,s Ministry 
received specialized training on assisting victims.  The 
government provided anti-trafficking training through its 
Peacekeeping Training Center at Port Dickson to troops 
preparing to deploy to international peacekeeping missions. 
The government has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol. 
 
¶9. Post may wish to deliver the following points, which offer 
technical and legal background on the TIP Report process, to 
the host government as a non-paper with the above TIP Report 
country narrative: 
 
(begin non-paper) 
 
-- The U.S. Congress, through its passage of the 2000 
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA), 
requires the Secretary of State to submit an annual Report to 
Congress.  The goal of this Report is to stimulate action and 
create partnerships around the world in the fight against 
modern-day slavery.  The USG approach to combating human 
trafficking follows the TVPA and the standards set forth in 
the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in 
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the 
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized 
Crime (commonly known as the "Palermo Protocol").  The TVPA 
and the Palermo Protocol recognize that this is a crime in 
which the victims, labor or services (including in the "sex 
industry") are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, 
or coercion, whether overt or through psychological 
manipulation.  While much attention has focused on 
international flows, both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol 
focus on the exploitation of the victim, and do not require a 
showing that the victim was moved. 
 
-- Recent amendments to the TVPA removed the requirement that 
only countries with a "significant number" of trafficking 
victims be included in the Report. Beginning with the 2009 
TIP Report, countries determined to be a country of origin, 
transit, or destination for victims of severe forms of 
trafficking are included in the Report and assigned to one of 
three tiers.  Countries assessed as meeting the "minimum 
standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking" 
set forth in the TVPA are classified as Tier 1.  Countries 
assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards, 
but making significant efforts to meet those minimum 
standards are classified as Tier 2.  Countries assessed as 
neither complying with the minimum standards nor making 
significant efforts to do so are classified as Tier 3. 
 
-- The TVPA also requires the Secretary of State to provide a 
"Special Watch List" to Congress later in the year. 
Anti-trafficking efforts of the countries on this list are to 
be evaluated again in an Interim Assessment that the 
Secretary of State must provide to Congress by February 1 of 
each year.  Countries are included on the "Special Watch 
List" if they move up in "tier" rankings in the annual TIP 
Report -- from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 ) or if they have been 
placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. 
 
-- Tier 2 Watch List consists of Tier 2 countries determined: 
(1) not to have made "increasing efforts" to combat human 
trafficking over the past year; (2) to be making significant 
efforts based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over 
the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of 
trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim 
population.  As indicated in reftel B, the TVPRA of 2008 
contains a provision requiring that a country that has been 
included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years after 
the date of enactment of the TVPRA of 2008 be ranked as Tier 
¶3.  Thus, any automatic downgrade to Tier 3 pursuant to this 
provision would take place, at the earliest, in the 2011 TIP 
Report (i.e., a country would have to be ranked Tier 2 Watch 
List in the 2009 and 2010 Reports before being subject to 
Tier 3 in the 2011 Report).  The new law allows for a waiver 
of this provision for up to two additional years upon a 
determination by the President that the country has developed 
and devoted sufficient resources to a written plan to make 
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the 
minimum standards. 
 
-- Countries classified as Tier 3 may be subject to statutory 
restrictions for the subsequent fiscal year on 
non-humanitarian and non-trade-related foreign assistance 
and, in some circumstances, withholding of funding for 
participation by government officials or employees in 
educational and cultural exchange programs.   In addition, 
the President could instruct the U.S. executive directors to 
international financial institutions to oppose loans or other 
utilization of funds (other than for humanitarian, 
trade-related or certain types of development assistance) 
with respect to countries on Tier 3.  Countries classified as 
Tier 3 that take strong action within 90 days of the Report's 
release to show significant efforts against trafficking in 
persons, and thereby warrant a reassessment of their Tier 
classification, would avoid such sanctions.  Guidelines for 
such actions are in the DOS-crafted action plans to be shared 
by Posts with host governments. 
 
-- The 2009 TIP Report, issuing as it does in the midst of 
the global financial crisis, highlights high levels of 
trafficking for forced labor in many parts of the world and 
systemic contributing factors to this phenomenon:  fraudulent 
recruitment practices and excessive recruiting fees in 
workers, home countries; the lack of adequate labor 
protections in both sending and receiving countries; and the 
flawed design of some destination countries, "sponsorship 
systems" that do not give foreign workers adequate legal 
recourse when faced with conditions of forced labor.  As the 
May 2009 ILO Global Report on Forced Labor concluded, forced 
labor victims suffer approximately $20 billion in losses, and 
traffickers, profits are estimated at $31 billion.  The 
current global financial crisis threatens to increase the 
number of victims of forced labor and increase the associated 
"cost of coercion." 
 
-- The text of the TVPA and amendments can be found on 
website www.state.gov/g/tip. 
 
-- On June 16, 2009, the Secretary of State will release the 
ninth annual TIP Report in a public event at the State 
Department.  We are providing you an advance copy of your 
country's narrative in that report.  Please keep this 
information embargoed until 10:00 am Washington DC time June 
¶16.  The State Department will also hold a general briefing 
for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June 
17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
(end non-paper) 
 
¶10. Posts should make sure that the relevant country 
narrative is readily available on or though the Mission's web 
page in English and appropriate local language(s) as soon as 
possible after the TIP Report is released.  Funding for 
translation costs will be handled as it was for the Human 
Rights Report.  Posts needing financial assistance for 
translation costs should contact their regional bureau,s EX 
office. 
 
¶11. The following is press guidance provided for Post to use 
with local media. 
 
Q1: Why was Malaysia downgraded to Tier 3 in the 2009 TIP 
Report? 
 
A: The Government of Malaysia does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is 
not making significant efforts to do so, despite progress in 
enforcing the country,s new anti-trafficking law.  While the 
government took initial actions under the anti-trafficking 
law against sex trafficking, it has yet to fully address 
trafficking in persons issues, particularly labor trafficking 
in Malaysia.  Credible allegations of involvement of 
Malaysian immigration officials in trafficking and extorting 
Burmese refugees overshadowed initial steps by the 
Immigration Department to address human trafficking.  The 
Royal Malaysian Police is investigating the allegations with 
the cooperation of the Immigration Department, as publicly 
confirmed by the Prime Minister but no officials were 
arrested, prosecuted, or convicted for involvement in 
trafficking during the reporting period.  The government did 
not develop mechanisms to screen effectively victims of 
trafficking in vulnerable groups.  The government also 
continued to allow for the confiscation of passports by 
employers of migrant workers ) a common practice in 
Malaysia.  This practice is recognized by many in the 
international anti-trafficking community as facilitating 
trafficking.  The practice of withholding the salaries of 
foreign domestic workers for three to six months so the 
employer can recover the levy paid to hire the worker 
remained widely practiced.  As a regional economic leader 
approaching developed nation status, Malaysia has the 
resources and government infrastructure to do more in 
addressing trafficking in persons. 
 
Q2: Was the Malaysian Government complicit in human 
trafficking during the reporting period? 
 
A: There were a number of credible reports of Malaysian 
immigration authorities, involvement in the trafficking of 
Burmese refugees from immigration detention centers to the 
Thai-Malaysian border.  This includes a detailed report 
issued by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 
April 2009.  Several credible sources reported that 
immigration officials sold refugees for approximately $200 
per person to traffickers operating along Thailand,s 
southern border.  In turn, the traffickers demanded ransom ) 
ranging from $300 for children to $575 for adults ) in 
exchange for their freedom.  Informed sources estimated 20 
percent of the victims were unable to pay the ransom, and 
were sold for the purpose of labor and commercial sexual 
exploitation.  Despite these credible reports of government 
officials, direct involvement in human trafficking, none 
were arrested, prosecuted, or punished for trafficking.  The 
Prime Minister and Inspector General of Police reported that 
the government is actively investigating the allegations. 
 
Q3: What progress has Malaysia made in the past year? 
A: In December 2008, the government convicted its first 
trafficking offender under the 2007 anti-trafficking law. 
The government also initiated prosecutions against an 
additional six alleged traffickers.  The Ministry for Women, 
Family, and Community Development continued to run two 
trafficking shelters, which held suspected and confirmed 
trafficking victims until they were repatriated to their home 
countries.  In 2008, the Ministry renovated a third shelter 
in the East Malaysian state of Sabah.  In 2008, the police 
referred 98 potential trafficking victims to the government 
shelter in Kuala Lumpur, 34 of which were certified by 
magistrates as officially recognized trafficking victims. 
Senior officials, including the Prime Minister, Inspector 
General of Police, and the Minister for Women, Family, and 
Community Development, spoke out more routinely against 
trafficking crimes, and the government-influenced media 
carried numerous reports that raised awareness of 
trafficking. 
Q4: What efforts could Malaysia make  to improve its fight 
against trafficking in persons? 
A: The Malaysian government could:  fully implement and 
enforce the comprehensive anti-trafficking in persons law; 
increase the number of prosecutions, convictions, and 
sentences for both sex and labor trafficking; adopt and 
disseminate proactive procedures to identify victims of 
trafficking among vulnerable groups such as migrant workers 
and foreign women and children arrested for prostitution; 
apply stringent criminal penalties to those involved in 
fraudulent labor recruitment or exploitation o forced labor; 
ensure that victims of trafficking are not threatened or 
otherwise punished for crimes committed as a result of being 
trafficked; re-examine existing MOUs with source countries to 
incorporate victim protection and revoke passport or travel 
document confiscation; increase efforts to prosecute and 
convict public officials who profit from or are involved in 
trafficking; expand the training of law enforcement, 
immigration, prosecutors, and judges on the use of the 2007 
trafficking law; implement and support a comprehensive and 
visible anti-trafficking awareness campaign directed at 
employers and clients of the sex trade; increase efforts to 
prosecute and convict public officials who profit from, or 
are involved in trafficking, or who exploit victims. 
 
 
¶12. 2009 TIP Report Hero from Malaysia 
Alice Nah is a founding member of the Migration Working 
Group, a network of lawyers, academics, and volunteers 
focused on caring for, protecting, and defending the rights 
of refugees and migrant workers who are especially vulnerable 
to becoming victims of forced labor.  Through the network, 
Ms. Nah urges law enforcement agencies to identify and 
protect refugees and migrant workers who become trafficking 
victims.  She raises government and public awareness through 
online articles describing the plight of trafficking victims, 
refugees, and migrant workers.  In January 2009, Ms. Nah 
wrote about the trafficking of Burmese refugees along the 
Malaysia-Thailand border.  Her article increased local and 
international attention to the issue and raised public 
awareness within Malaysia. 
 
¶13. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON