Malaysian citizen and foreign victims are sex trafficked into and out of all major cities and states and federal territories of Malaysia. They are raped and physically and psychologically harmed in brothels, homes, and various business and work sites within these administrative divisions.
Sex trafficking victims in the country are from all ethnic groups in Malaysia and foreigners. Children,[1][2] people in rural areas and or poverty, minorities,[3] migrants, and refugees[4][5] are vulnerable. Malaysian citizens, primarily women and girls,[6] have been sex trafficked into other countries in Asia and different continents.[7] Many are forced into prostitution and or marriage[2][8] and unfree labour.[9] Victims are threatened and experience physically and psychologically abuse.[3] They contract sexually transmitted diseases from rapes. Some are coerced to be in online pornographic films. The perpetrators are often part of or collude with criminal syndicates.[10] They increasing use the internet to deceive victims.[3][7]
The government of Malaysia has been criticized for its response to sex trafficking. Corruption and impunity are pervasive. Officials and police have been complicit in trafficking.[9][5][11] Law enforcement have also failed to recognize victims and other indications of trafficking, and have treated cases as immigration violations.[5] Though some anti-trafficking efforts, such as public service announcements,[5] are carried out, progress has been limited by poor border management,[10] weak victim protections,[5] inadequate law enforcement practices, low convictions,[12] and other factors.[9]
Tactics of Sex Traffickers in Malaysia
There are a number of tactics sex traffickers utilize to gain access to their victims. Traffickers tend to look for vulnerable groups, people who are in desperate conditions, and in that way are easy to coerce and control. An example of a vulnerable group often targeted for sex trafficking in Malaysia are Vietnamese women for whom socio-economic status is a driving factor of their coercion into sex trafficking.[13]
Mahalingam et al. discuss the three stages of sex trafficking, acquisition, movement, and control, and how they have played out in Malaysia. In Malaysia, particularly Sabah, people vulnerable due to poverty are promised decent jobs, and the opportunity to form better lives for themselves. Based on these promises, they go to agreed upon destinations for work. They find that these jobs are not as promised, and are instead made to participate in work at “illegal sex establishments".[14] This outlines the "acquisition" step, by which traffickers establish contact with victims.
Following aquisition is the movement step, in which sex trafficking victims are moved and transported between areas, either other states, towns, or countries. Malaysia is not only a destination for victims from other countries, but likewise “a transit state for victims from Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam”.[14] Sex traffickers, attempting to move people across international borders resort to several tactics, including monitoring, law-enforcement, looking for immigration, loopholes and utilizing cheap methods of transportation ranging from sea to air.[14] It was found that 96% of sex trafficking victims in Malaysia were from outside of the country, visiting Malaysia for better economic opportunities, and largely from Asian nations, such as Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and China.[15] Sex trafficking in Malaysia in this way is part of a larger international issue.
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