Most victims of human trafficking job-seekers, says Wan Junaidi

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SIBU: Most victims of human trafficking are those leaving home with an offer of a specific job but ended up doing a different job under coercion, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said.

“A small number of them are actual victims of human trafficking.

“Some were cheated by employers, agents and out-sourcing companies.

“Some of them were trying to escape the bad political situation in their own country,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.

He pointed out that there were far too many of these foreign immigrants, legal or illegal, who wanted to settle in Malaysia for good or for a long period.

“Those people who got stranded at KLIA, whose travel documents, missing and found again; they even have UNHCR cards, why? The reason is that they want to cross the Malaysia immigration checkpoint at KLIA.

“Once in, we have to conduct the due process of sending them out. If there is no country willing to accept them, they will be in Malaysia for an indefinite time,” the Santubong MP said.

He was responding to a Bernama online report which stated that the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah was told that Malaysia was still under observation by the US Department of State with regard to human trafficking activities.

According to the report, Intelligence officer from the Bukit Aman Human Trafficking Unit, ASP Jimrey Anak Hillary, said Malaysia had been put in Tier 2 (Watch-list), one of the lowest classification, since 2008.

Jimrey mentioned that the US viewed Malaysia as a transit country for sexual workers from Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India and Vietnam.

According to Wan Junaidi, the US was trying to dominate the world community of nations through immigration law and standard (their standard).

“We could comply with some of the requirements but not all. We introduced the Human Trafficking Law in 2007, which was considered not adequate by the American standard. And we have the sanctuary house facilities overseen by government, but America wants it be placed under NGO,” he lamented.

He added: “The worst part is that America wants us to release every illegal immigrant arrested, give him a work permit before sending him back to his own country.

“This would mean to open the floodgate for countries in Asean, Indochina and sub-continent India, China and others to knock at our gate.

“Even with the present immigration control, we have over one million workers in Malaysia. Our porous borders are not like America’s which are far away from other countries except the Caribbean countries and Mexico.”