MEETING WITH HOME AFFAIRS SECGEN AND TEAM ON TIP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUALA LUMPUR 000888

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2019
TAGS: KTIP KCRM KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG MY
SUBJECT: MEETING WITH HOME AFFAIRS SECGEN AND TEAM ON TIP

REF: A. A. KL 775 TIP AMBASSADOR CDEBACA'S VISIT TO
MALAYSIA AUGUST 25-27

B. B. KL 832 MALAYSIA: HEAD PROSECUTOR ON TIP
CASELOAD AND REQUEST FOR USG TRAINING

C. C. KL 839 AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH HOME AFFAIRS
MINISTER: TIP AND CT COOPERATION

Classified By: Political Counselor Brian McFeeters for reasons 1.4 (b)
and (d).


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On October 26, Pol Counselor, poloff and
ICE representatives met with Secretary General Mahmood Bin
Adam, Senior Deputy Secretary General Raja Azahar, as well as
several other senior officials within the Ministry of Home
Affairs to discuss recent GOM efforts to combat trafficking
in persons. During this meeting, which came in direct
follow-up to the Ambassador,s meeting with Home Affairs
Hishamuddin the previous week, SecGen Mahmood stated that the
GOM had completed its National TIP Action Plan covering
objectives for the next five years and presented a copy of
this 57-page report, in Bahasa Malaysia, to PolCouns (MHA
plans to provide an English language version shortly). The
meeting discussed several TIP related issues and initiatives
to include: the launching of a public awareness campaign; the
need for Malaysia to investigate, charge, and prosecute cases
under the GOM Anti-TIP Act; the benefits of working with
local NGOs on victims' services/counseling; and upcoming
bilateral training opportunities. Mahmood named Deputy
Secretary General Raja Azahar as the point of contact for
future discussions with us on TIP matters. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) COMMENT: Although this meeting with the SecGen and his
team focused more than we would have liked on process issues
over TIP substance, it was a good first step and interaction
following the Ambassador's tour-d'horizon with the Home
Affairs minister on October 21. While we'll wait for the
English language translation of their national TIP Action
plan, on first glance and despite its 57 pages, it seems thin
in substantive areas of most interest to us. The document
appears to be more aspirational in content rather than an
outline of specific concrete actions to be taken. Both the
meeting and the GOM TIP Action Plan underscore the need for
us to provide the GOM with our TIP Action Plan as soon as
possible. DepSecGen Raja Azahar's designation as our main
interlocutor for continued interaction with the MHA on TIP
issues is a positive development. END COMMENT.


3. (SBU) In follow-up to the Ambassador's Oct. 21 meeting
with Home Minister Hishamuddin (ref C) and at the direct
request of Home Affairs Secretary General Mahmood Bin Adam,
Pol Counselor, poloff, and Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) representatives met October 26 with SecGen
Mahmood and a team of senior MHA officials to discuss TIP
issues and the GOM's efforts to combat human trafficking.
Joining on the Malaysian side were Senior Deputy Secretary
General Raja Azahar, Special Officer to the Home Minister
Bastien Onn, several officials from the Home Ministry's
Planning Division, and representatives from the Royal
Malaysian Police, Immigration Service, and other enforcement
agencies.


4. (C) Mahmood opened the meeting by presenting the GOM's
57-page National TIP Action Plan covering objectives for the
next five years. Although the copy presented was in Bahasa
Malaysia, Mahmood said an English translation was underway.
PolCouns and poloff queried about MHA or GOM plans to
publicly announce release of the report, noting that the
Secretary of State hosts press conferences to release the
Human Rights Report, the International Religious Freedom
Report and the TIP Report. They suggested that having a
senior GOM official announce the release of the TIP Action
Plan would help demonstrate the GOM's commitment to combating
TIP and launch a public awareness campaign. Mahmood did not
respond specifically to this suggestion for an official
announcement, but said that plans are already in the works to
place anti-TIP posters in airports and provide multi-lingual
educational pamphlets on TIP to people entering Malaysia.


5. (C) PolCouns mentioned the need for GOM to investigate,
charge, and prosecute cases under the GOM Anti-TIP Act.
DepSecGen Raja Azahar noted that the Anti-TIP Act was new and
his officials needed more time to become familiar with how to
use it effectively. He noted that police and prosecutors
were becoming more adept at handling sexual exploitation
cases but still had difficulty developing labor trafficking
cases. Recalling points made by GTIP Ambassador Cdebaca
during his visit end-August (reftel A),PolOff suggested that
better treatment of TIP victims could lead to better
cooperation with prosecutors. PolOff noted that in 2009, the
AG's Chambers identified 77 victims who could potentially
serve as cooperative witnesses and suggested that providing
them with some form of legal immigration status might resolve
this issue. (NOTE: On October 30, a local English language

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daily, The Star, reported that a Singaporean had been charged
under the Anti-TIP Act for trafficking six Filipino women.
The article noted that the head of State Immigration applied
for a protection order "to allow the victims to remain in the
country for the duration of the trial and to appear as
witnesses." END NOTE).


6. (C) PolCouns noted that the GOM should improve its
counseling services to victims of TIP and suggested that the
GOM could learn a lot from local NGOs on how to provide
effective counseling. PolOff also pointed out that NGOs
could be a good source of information for TIP prosecutions
and requested a point of contact for forwarding information
on potential TIP cases. Raja Azahar agreed to put his team
in contact with NGOs that the Embassy identified as having
information on trafficking cases. (NOTE: Local NGO Tenaganita
informed PolCouns on October 27 that it receives information
on approximately twelve labor trafficking cases per month.
Aegile Fernandez, Tenaganita's Anti-TIP coordinator,
explained that they referred one such case to the AG's
Chambers in July but there has not been any action taken on
the case yet. She claimed that a few of the cases appear to
involve recruiting companies that have ties to political
parties such as UMNO as well as to some government
agencies/ministries. END NOTE).


7. (C) In a more general discussion about TIP issues, several
GOM officials present voiced concerns about the USG's TIP
report and Malaysia,s Tier 3 designation, and questioned the
credibility of those claiming to be trafficked. It was
contended that neighboring countries had far worse human
trafficking problems than Malaysia. Another law enforcement
official offered that many of the women working as
prostitutes were willing participants who claim they had been
trafficked only after being caught up in a police raid.
SecGen Mahmood commented that there are thousands of
Indonesian maids working in Malaysia and they have only heard
of 50 problems with trafficked maids. In general, there was
push-back from the Malaysian officials on the issue of
providing better services to victims.


8. (SBU) Both sides reviewed current and upcoming training
TIP events (reftel B),to which the Malaysian side was very
positive. Embassy personnel are currently supporting five
successive two-day anti-TIP training seminars between October
19 and November 3 that the Attorney General's Chambers is
providing to law enforcement personnel. SecGen Mahmood
confirmed that representatives from the various law
enforcement agencies under the Home Ministry would
participate in the U.S. Department of Justice Office of
Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, and Training
(DOJ-OPDAT) currently scheduled for early December in Kuala
Lumpur. Mahmood also expressed interest in the offer from
ICE officials to provide follow-on anti-TIP training in March

2010.


9. (SBU) Next Steps: SecGen Mahmood named DepSecGen Raja
Azahar as the point of contact for future discussions on TIP
and proposed a follow-on meeting in the coming weeks. Both
sides agreed that we would continue to communicate on TIP
issues. SecGen Mahmood promised an English version of the
TIP Action Plan within a week. Post plans to hold off on a
second meeting until we have the USG TIP Action Plan for
Malaysia in hand, which we will convey to key ministers under
cover letter from the Ambassador. Once that plan is
presented to the Home Affairs Ministry, Foreign Ministry,
Human Resources Ministry, and Women,s Ministry, Post will be
in a better position to further engage and try to shape the
GOM effort on combating TIP. In the interim, we will
continue to coordinate with GOM counterparts on the upcoming
DOJ/OPDAT training in December 2009 and DHS/ICE training in
March 2010.
KEITH