Nazri Aziz (BN-Padang Rengas) made this call while debating the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (Amendment) Bill 2021 in the Dewan Rakyat today.
The bill seeks to increase the jail term for those convicted of smuggling migrants from the maximum of 15 years to 20 years.
“Now, the CEO continues to relax while the company is just fined,” he said.
The former federal minister also called for an end to the use of middlemen to bring in migrant workers.
“These middlemen are known to charge exorbitant fees to bring in foreign labour, and this causes these workers from poor countries to become victims of ‘bondage’.
“Putrajaya should deal directly with the source country’s government to recruit qualified labour.
“If we need labour from Philippines or Bangladesh, we deal with the government and we take labour from their respective agencies,” Nazri said.
He added that the government should also treat illegal workers better as most of them enter the country legally but run away from their employers to escape cruelty.
“We should tell them as soon as you find yourself illegal, come to us as we need foreign workers too.”
Meanwhile, Mujahid Yusof Rawa (PH-Parit Buntar) said the issue of human trafficking is likely to worsen as long as there is corruption in the enforcement agencies involved in securing the borders.
“The issue of forced labour will continue to occur as long as the stain of corruption involving enforcement officers went unchecked,” he added.
“We may have good laws but our enforcement remains poor because we have corrupt officials on the ground.”
In July, the US downgraded Malaysia to the worst tier in Washington’s annual Trafficking in Persons report. The downgrade came after a string of complaints by rights groups and the US authorities over the alleged exploitation of migrant workers in plantations and factories.
Charles Santiago (PH-Klang) said Malaysia should take human trafficking standards and forced labour protocols and conventions seriously.
He said if the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) service banned Malaysian-made products from entering US, the restriction would apply in Canada and Mexico, which were part of the North America Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).
“The restriction can be further expanded to other free trade agreement partners, such as the European Union and Japan,” he warned.
MP calls for updates on Wang Kelian deaths
Meanwhile, RSN Rayer (PH-Jelutong) called for updates on the report on the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) on human trafficking and death camps in Wang Kelian, Perlis, that were discovered in 2015.
“From what I found, not one Malaysian has been accused (of a crime).
“How can this be, because we know the borders are enforced by immigration officers, police and the army.
“News reports said 12 police officers were arrested and investigated. What happened to them?” he said.
The government set up the RCI in 2019 to investigate the mass killings that grabbed headlines in May 2015 when police found 139 graves containing 106 bodies, believed to be of Rohingya immigrants.
Also discovered were 29 illegal immigrant detention camps deep in the jungles of Bukit Genting Perah and Bukit Wang Burma, a few hundred metres from the Malaysia-Thai border in Wang Kelian.