G/TIP DIRECTOR MILLER URGES MALAYSIA TO PROTECT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 KUALA LUMPUR 002160 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP AND G/TIP E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/22/2016 TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KCRM KWMN MY SUBJECT: G/TIP DIRECTOR MILLER URGES MALAYSIA TO PROTECT TIP VICTIMS AND DRAFT LAW REF: A. STATE 144327 ¶B. KUALA LUMPUR 1661 ¶C. KUALA LUMPUR 1804 ¶D. KUALA LUMPUR 2035 Classified By: Ambassador Christopher J. LaFleur, reasons 1.4 (b and d) . Summary -------------- ¶1. (SBU) G/TIP Director John Miller's November 8-11 visit to Malaysia focused on urging the GOM to pass comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation, fund and establish victims' shelters, and properly identify trafficking victims. While the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP),Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (WFCD),and the Department of Immigration called for a TIP law, Malaysia's Attorney General remained skeptical about the need for new legislation. Senior police and immigration officials recognized the need to protect victims and described their efforts to provide proper shelter. Malaysia, however, has not opened a government-run victims' shelter, and the Women's Minister remained unengaged. Miller called for Malaysia to fund private shelters and highlighted the possible role of NGOs and international organizations to help meet shelter needs. Miller's visit served to remind the GOM of the priority the U.S. places on combating trafficking and we are examining new ways to build momentum. End Summary. Urging GOM Actions -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Ambassador John R. Miller, G/TIP Director, accompanied by G/TIP Senior Reports Coordinator Mark Taylor, visited Kuala Lumpur November 8-11 to meet with government and civic leaders to urge Malaysia to take actions against human trafficking against the backdrop of Malaysia's placement on the Tier 2 Watch List in the 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report. Ambassador Miller encouraged senior cabinet members to support, draft and enact a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, open or support appropriate shelters for trafficking victims, and institute proper screening procedures to properly identify trafficking victims from among the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens that enter Malaysia every year. Mixed support for a new law -------------- ¶3. (C) Despite previous and contemporaneous calls from the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP),Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (WFCD),and the Ministry of Home Affairs through its Immigration Department for the passage of a comprehensive anti-trafficking law (reftels),Malaysia's Attorney General (AG),Abdul Gani Patail, remained skeptical and unconvinced that a new law was necessary. Twice during a 90 minute meeting with Amb. Miller, the AG declared that "we are tired of this issue." Abdul Gani politely expressed frustration with the pressure he felt the United States was placing on his country to pass an anti-trafficking law, and declared, "if we pass a law, it is just a process to raise our status from Tier 3 to 2 to 1." He further opined that "laws are meaningless if they are not enforced." Citing Malaysia's Immigration Act, Penal Code and the Child Act of 2001, Abdul Gani declared Malaysia's laws "more or less adequate" to address trafficking. Besides, he noted, Malaysia was no longer charging foreign prostitutes with a crime, nor were they charging women and children as visa violators; they are now merely detained by immigration and deported, he said. Despite the litany of statutes cited, the AG admitted that most suspected traffickers, if identified, are not charged under any of those laws but are detained without trial under Malaysia's Restricted Residence Act. ¶4. (C) Subsequent meetings with the RMP, Immigration and WFCD contradicted Abdul Gani's confidence in Malaysia's current legal scheme to address trafficking. The RMP's new Director of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Commissioner of Police Christopher Wan, expressed frustration with the current piecemeal of laws used and could not provide an example of a successful trafficking prosecution in the last several years. Wan echoed the Inspector General's previous calls for comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation (ref B) and admitted that under the current scheme it was too difficult for police to develop cases against anyone but the most basic, wage-earning, brothel employees. According to Wan, the real traffickers were not being captured and certainly not being prosecuted. Likewise, Wan admitted, KUALA LUMP 00002160 002 OF 004 cases against employers who abuse their domestic servants were equally rare, and even the most egregious of cases could be tied up for years in the courts. (Comment: Senior police officials we met with did not appear to understand the definition of trafficking and often confused human smuggling, illegal immigration and actual trafficking. This confusion is exacerbated by the fact that there remains no legal definition of trafficking in Malaysian law, and though the police often refer to the definition described in the United Nations Protocol, it is not well understood. End Comment.) ¶5. (SBU) Malaysia's Director of Immigration Enforcement, Ishak Mohamed, took a softer stance than the RMP, but echoed the call for more comprehensive legislation. Ishak opined that current laws were sufficient for many trafficking offenses, but acknowledged that more comprehensive laws were necessary to properly identify and protect victims. Echoing some of the Attorney General's remarks, Ishak admitted that law enforcement officials from all branches were concerned and confounded with how to identify actual victims from "all the willing participants." Moreover, both Ishak and the Attorney General recognized that the second greatest issue was identifying with certainty the actual nationality of the person in custody. Many of the possible victims are detained without identification and determination of nationality can often be difficult or prolonged. Ishak advised us that to counter this problem, all persons detained are now fingerprinted, and any subsequent arrests will immediately identify their nation of origin and past history of immigration violations. Immigration Detention or Victims' Shelter? -------------- ¶6. (C) Ishak reported that the GoM has gazetted five immigration detention facilities to be used as separate detention centers for suspected trafficking victims. Although none of these facilities are yet opened, the intended purpose is to separate victims from illegal immigrants. (In other meetings, both the Attorney General and the Minister of WFCD referred to these future detention facilities as victims' shelters. These are the same facilities reported in ref A.) These detention facilities are to be operated and staffed entirely by the Department of Immigration. Ishak, however, doubted the wisdom in establishing these facilities. He foresaw the difficulty in separating and housing detainees in full sight of other immigration violators and remained skeptical of the influence this would have in promoting false reports of victimization and creating a pull factor for those merely seeking to be housed separately. As the AG described the situation, because all victims are also in violation of immigration laws, the law requires them to remain in the custody of immigration officials until they are properly removed from the country. The AG admitted that it was legally possible for trafficking victims to be issued a visa and thus be allowed to remain in Malaysia outside of immigration custody, but Ishak informed us that Malaysia did not have any applicable class of visa for that purpose. Ishak expressed interest in America's "T" visa program, and opined that such a program should be considered in any future anti-trafficking legislation. Women's Minister shows lack of focus -------------- ¶7. (C) During a dinner meeting with Ambassador Miller, Women's Minister Shahrizat Jalil conveyed a personal and institutional lack of focus on the issue of trafficking in persons. Ambassador Miller used their meeting to remind Minister Shahrizat of her December 2004 commitment to open a victims' shelter and asked her of her progress in fulfilling that pledge. Shahrizat lamented that she had not been able to open the shelter as she had subsequently learned she did not have the legal authority to operate it. The victims, she explained, must necessarily remain in the custody of immigration officials and current laws and budget structures did not allow the facilities to be opened. When pressed on the fact that the AG had commented earlier in the day that there was no legal impediment to opening a shelter, Shahrizat claimed the AG had told her otherwise. There was also no money allocated for repairing and remodeling the first shelter she had gazetted in the State of Selangor, just outside of Kuala Lumpur. She remained convinced that absent a new law, the government could not open any victims' shelters. ¶8. (SBU) Miller encouraged Sharizat to consider alternatives to opening a government-run shelter. He encouraged the KUALA LUMP 00002160 003 OF 004 Minister to consider funding private shelters such as those operated by Tenaganita and the Woman's Aid Organization (WAO). He also recommended she consider inviting the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to come to Malaysia and open or assist with a victims' shelter. It was not necessary, Miller advised, for the GoM to run its own shelters, if it were willing to support IOs or NGOs that were capable of meeting the nation's needs. ¶9. (C) Minister Shahrizat spent the majority of the dinner meeting criticizing senior American officials and expressing her own critical opinions about American foreign policy and the recent mid-term elections. After Ambassador Miller's departure, Shahrizat called Ambassador LaFleur to apologize for her harsh comments and for leading the conversation off on such a tangent. Ambassador Miller followed up his visit to Malaysia with a personal letter to Minister Shahrizat encouraging her to visit some of the shelters he had seen and to gain for herself a first-hand view of the victims that present in her country. Visiting Victims' Shelters -------------- ¶10. (SBU) The Indonesian embassy and NGOs Tenaganita and the WAO welcomed Miller's visit and guided him on tours of their shelters in the Kuala Lumpur area. The Indonesian Embassy reported they housed up to 800 women per year in their shelter in Kuala Lumpur with up to 200 resident at any given time. Of the 800 women and children sheltered each year, some 40 to 60 percent were victims of trafficking in one form or another. Embassy officials reported that Indonesia's four consulates in Malaysia also ran smaller shelters, each housing between 60 and 100 women and children. They estimated a similar percentage of trafficking victims at each facility. ¶11. (SBU) The NGOs Tenaganita and WAO operate the only two private shelters in Malaysia and each facility can house up to 25 people at a time. WAO has operated a shelter for over 20 years, but the majority of their residents are not trafficking victims but victims of domestic violence. Of the fourteen women and eleven children in WAO's shelter during Miller's visit, only one was identified as a trafficking victim. WAO expressed a desire to focus more on women's advocacy than shelter operations, but pledged to continue campaigning for a comprehensive anti-trafficking act. ¶12. (SBU) Tenaganita operates the only shelter in the country dedicated entirely to female trafficking victims. Tenaganita opened their US Government-funded shelter in May 2006, and currently houses 24 victims from Indonesia, Vietnam, Burma and Cambodia. The shelter previously housed victims from Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia. Social workers who operate the shelter reported to Miller that they have excellent cooperation and assistance from the police, but that unfortunately they are not able to take in all the victims the police would like to place. Social workers explained that police recently approached the shelter about taking in fifteen more rescued women but the shelter could not accommodate that many more victims. Police are continually seeking shelter for victims rescued in other areas of the country as well, but shelters are not available. Tenaganita reported that those victims who cannot be placed in a shelter at either Tenaganita, WAO or a cooperating embassy, are placed in immigrati on detention until they can be processed for deportation. ¶13. (SBU) Tenaganita expressed concern that their funding would expire in January and requested Amb. Miller seek an additional year's funding from PRM. Currently Tenaganita's shelter is entirely funded by PRM through its implementing partner IOM. Post will convey via septel Tenaganita's request for continued funding. Comment -------------- ¶14. (C) Ambassador Miller's mission in Malaysia focused the GOM on key points in our recommended anti-trafficking Action Plan. The RMP and the Immigration Department have taken positions and actions which indicate strong support for new TIP legislation, and foreign embassies and NGOs continue to report police actions to rescue victims. Cabinet ministries, however, have not demonstrated similar commitment or interest. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to our diplomatic note and follow up calls requesting assistance in scheduling meetings for Ambassador Miller, including our request for a meeting with MFA officials. Despite being KUALA LUMP 00002160 004 OF 004 appointed as the coordinating ministry for trafficking, the Ministry of Internal Security (MIS) declined to meet with us and referred us to the Ministry of Home Affairs and to the Attorney General, whom MIS claimed "really have action on this issue." The Women's Ministry, a natural advocate for female victims, has not moved beyond rhetoric, including on the key issue of sheltering victims. Ambassador Miller's discussions reminded the GOM of the priority the United States attaches to combating trafficking and our attention to Malaysia as a destination country for trafficking victims. We are examining new ways to build momentum following this visit, including the programming of senior Justice Department officials to further lobby for a TIP law, the initiation of DOJ/ICITAP victim identification training for police, and initiatives to increase public awareness of the plight of trafficking victims. LAFLEUR