PETALING JAYA, June 22 — Human rights organisations have identified the main reason for Malaysia’s human trafficking downgrade to Tier 3 as the government’s problems in tackling the issue.

Tenaganita director Glorene Das also said that awareness on human trafficking was lacking.

She was commenting on the downgrading of Malaysia to the lowest ranking in the US State Department’s annual human trafficking report.

The relegation to tier 3 in the Trafficking in Persons (TiP) report, published on Friday, indicated that the country had categorically failed to comply with the most basic international requirements to prevent trafficking and protect victims within its borders, it said.

Das said it had become clear the government had been institutionalising labour from other countries.

“Unfortunately, with most of these human trafficking cases, more than one offence is usually found,” she said.

On the lack of awareness, she said: “If there is no education to specifically explain what contributes to human trafficking, people will not know they are contributing to the problem.”

She said only a handful were hauled up for human trafficking offences and the subject had to be taken more seriously.

“An effective way to combat the issue is to name and shame industries and employers that are involved, no matter how minor the offence,” she said.

Das said it was sad to note the government was not doing its best to overcome the issue, because she was confronted with it on a daily basis.

She said although there was a lot to be done for the country to be upgraded, the first step was to change the mindset of the people.

“If we change the perspective of the public, employers, stakeholders and the government by looking at these people as human beings and not profit making methods, it will not be difficult to be upgraded,” she said.

Transparency-International Malaysia president Datuk Akhbar Satar said human trafficking had been a major problem.

He said the downgrade was a call to the government to enhance its efforts within civil society so that human trafficking could be combated with a holistic approach.

“It poses a threat to the security of the nation, on top of giving the country a bad image,” he said.

Akhbar said the government had stepped things up with the National Action Plan to prevent human trafficking, many of the avenues still required improvement, especially in creating awareness.

He said that enforcement at the borders had to be improved.

“We find officers on duty not paying attention and not examining those entering the country properly,” he said.

“They should conduct profiling and thorough checks for flights entering from countries linked to human trafficking.”

Akhbar suggested that the selection of border officers should require more thought and for them to be placed on a three- to five-year job rotation to prevent corruption, leading to human trafficking.