A. Ananthalakshmi
WORLD NEWS
JUNE 28, 2018 / 9:37 PM
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| The U.S. State Department will downgrade Malaysia in its annual report on human trafficking to be released later on Thursday, a source told Reuters, just a year after the Southeast Asian nation was upgraded for making progress. (File pic) |
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department will downgrade Malaysia in its annual report on human trafficking to be released later on Thursday, a source told Reuters, just a year after the Southeast Asian nation was upgraded for making progress.
Malaysia will be downgraded back to Tier 2 Watch List, a category denoting nations that deserve special scrutiny, in the State Department’s closely watched Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, the source said, declining to be identified as the report is not yet public.
The source said while Malaysia had made good progress on combating human trafficking, it had not been able to meet all its promises. The source did not provide details.
Malaysia’s Home Ministry was not immediately available for comment.
The U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur directed queries to the State Department, which said the TIP report would be released at 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) on Thursday.
Last year, Malaysia was upgraded to Tier 2, a list of nations making significant efforts to comply.
The government had demonstrated increased efforts by expanding trafficking investigations, prosecutions, and convictions, the State Department said then.
However, it had said Malaysia did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas, including victim protection.
It had also said complicity among law enforcement officials, in the form of accepting bribes to allow undocumented border crossings, hampered some anti-trafficking efforts. Culpable officials typically avoided punishment, the report said.
Malaysia has long been known as a destination for trafficking victims, including documented and undocumented workers.
It relies heavily on foreign workers from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, and the Philippines, among others. It has nearly 2 million registered migrant workers, but there are millions more in the country without work permits.
Malaysia was in Tier 3 - the lowest ranking in the TIP report - until 2015, when it was upgraded to the Tier 2 Watch List, a move that drew criticism in both Malaysia and the United States.
Several U.S. lawmakers had then questioned if the Obama administration move to upgrade Malaysia was politically motivated in an effort to get Kuala Lumpur to sign the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. Countries with the lowest human trafficking rating could not join the trade pact - from which the United States has now withdrawn.
The upgrade came just weeks after Malaysian authorities found 139 graves in abandoned trafficking camps near the Thai border in the northern state of Perlis. The victims were believed to be mostly Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar.
Human rights activists have criticized Malaysia’s actions over that case as inadequate. It charged four foreigners with human trafficking, but said it lacked evidence to charge Malaysian police officials who were suspected of being involved in the trafficking syndicate.
Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi; Editing by Alex Richardson
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Ref: Reuters News
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trafficking-report-malaysia/u-s-to-downgrade-malaysia-in-annual-human-trafficking-report-source-idUSKBN1JO1XR
Ref: Reuters News
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trafficking-report-malaysia/u-s-to-downgrade-malaysia-in-annual-human-trafficking-report-source-idUSKBN1JO1XR
All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays.
The Malaysian borders are so porous that certain areas like the sea or water zones are basically open 'sesame' for all who wanted to encroach our territorial integrity. The only thing at this large expense of sea zones is only by patrolling surveillance and interdiction enforcement. Hopefully, in future there's a need for more more aerial and even stratospehric surveillance by stratosatellites.
ReplyDeleteMMEA seizes fishing boats with items worth RM2.4 Million
July 10, 2018, Tuesday
KUALA TERENGGANU: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) in Terengganu seized two Vietnamese fishing boats with 21 crew members and two skippers that encroached on state waters last Saturday.
Terengganu State Maritime Director, Maritime Capt Rahim Ramli said the first boat was seized at 7.40pm while the second boat at 8.30pm in an area ranging between 33 and 39 nautical miles from the Kuala Terengganu estuary.
The seizure apart from the two boats included 4.5 tonnes of marine products, 10,000 litres of diesel and fishing equipment estimated at RM2.4million.
All those detained had no identication documents or legal work permits, he said.
The two boats were seized in the waters near the oil platforms where the MMEA frequently carried out its enforcement operations, namely Ops Perkasa Timur and Op Marikh.
Rahim said that the waters off Terengganu had an abundance of sea food which were of high quality especially around oil platforms.
The areas were also the habitat of fish and A grade squid.
“This is a factor that attracts foreign fishermen who continue poaching and trespassing into Terengganu waters because they are sure of a good catch.
“It is for this reason that our personnel are frequently patrolling the area with the two ships and ve boats that we have,” he told a press conference at theTerengganu Maritime Department here ysterday.
“We have successfully carried out 40 arrests so far with a total seizure of RM50.5 million from January to yesterday (Sunday).
“We will continue to improve our patrolling and enforcement and ensure that our waters are not encroached upon,” said Rahim. — Bernama
Ref: BERNAMA
http://www.bernama.com/en/news.php?id=1478678
Cops form special task force to hunt Indira Gandhi's ex-husband
ReplyDeleteFaisal Asyraf | Published: 24 Apr 2019, 3:02 pm | Modified: 24 Apr 2019, 3:02 pm
Bukit Aman CID acting director Huzir Mohamed is leading a newly-formed special task force to locate Indira Gandhi's former husband Muhammad Riduan Abdullah and their daughter Prasana Diksa.
This was revealed by the Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun at a media conference held at the Police Training Centre in Kuala Lumpur today.
He also confirmed that police had met with the volunteer-based Indira Gandhi Action Team (Ingat) last week. Ingat seeks to assist the authorities in reuniting Prasana with her mother following a court order.
"There was a meeting among police officers, including those from the CID.
'We exchanged views and information on the matter with the NGO (Ingat). The task force led by the CID acting director will continue their effort to track (Riduan and Prasana)," he said.
On Friday, Ingat head Arun Dorasamay said Fuzi had relayed to them during a meeting at Bukit Aman that there would be a special task force set up to locate the duo.
Indira was also present at the meeting.
A lengthy legal battle between Riduan and Indira ensued involving both the syariah and civil courts. The High Court issued a warrant of arrest for Riduan in 2014.
The police have yet to locate him and Prasana.
Fuzi said to date, police have no indication of Riduan's whereabouts.
"We obtained information that he was in Thailand. Some said he was in Johor and Kelantan. We visited those places, but there were no indicators he was there."
Meanwhile, Fuzi said he has instructed police to beef up security, including at the Sri Lanka High Commission, following the recent bombing atrocities in the island country.
"We cannot downplay this incident and must be wary in case of retaliation by certain parties in our country.
"However, our preliminary investigations show no sign that Malaysians were involved in the bombing," he said.
Sunday's bombings at churches and high-end hotels in Colombo perpetrated by suicide bombers killed 359 people and wounded more than 500 others.
- M'kini
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/473548
Tontos placing GPS devices on Aksem vehicles
ReplyDeleteBernama | Published: 12 May 2019, 9:17 pm
Tonto syndicates are getting more brazen now and are fixing Global Positioning System (GPS) devices on vehicles belonging to the Malaysian Border Security Agency (Aksem), to track the movements of enforcement personnel stationed at the nation’s borders.
(Tonto syndicates comprise individuals or tontos who trail enforcement officers to tip off wrongdoers)
Aksem director-general Shaharuddin Abu Sohot said that three vehicles were detected with GPS devices placed on their rear bumpers earlier this year.
"When our personnel carried out a vehicle inspection, we found a suspicious gadget which turned out to be a functioning GPS device.
"The tontos now use technology like GPS aid which we believe are placed on our vehicles to track the movement of Aksem personnel patrolling the country's borders," he told Bernama.
As such, Shaharuddin said all Aksem vehicles had been ordered to undergo a thorough inspection to ensure that no devices such as GPS, were found.
"Indeed, the tonto syndicates will monitor enforcement personnel and we are investigating as to how the devices could be placed on the vehicles.
"There is a possibility that the devices were installed when MBSA sent its vehicles for servicing and maintenance at the (work)shop... however, investigations are still in progress," Shaharuddin said.
He reminded the agency’s personnel to be alert to the threats of the tonto groups as they could act aggressively.
"Aksem personnel have also been supplied with firearms should they face certain threats," he said.
The tontos’ threat to border enforcement personnel was apparent when a female customs officer Anisah Ali, died in an alleged mishap in 2016.
Anisah, 54, and her two colleagues were trailing a vehicle which was suspected to be carrying smuggled cigarettes when the incident took place.
Their vehicle was hit by a four-wheel-drive vehicle, believed to belong to tontos, at Banggol Chicha, Pasir Mas, Kelantan.
- Bernama
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/475889
Cops foil terrorist plot to attack non-Muslim houses of worship
ReplyDeleteAlyaa Alhadjri | Published: 13 May 2019, 3:07 pm | Modified: 13 May 2019, 3:07 pm
Four men linked to an Islamic State 'wolf pack' cell were arrested during the first week of Ramadan in connection with a plot to attack non-Muslim places of worship and entertainment centres around Kuala Lumpur.
Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador said the four were also plotting to assassinate several "high-profile" individuals accused of failing to uphold Islam and insulting the religion.
The men, aged between 20 and 49, comprise a Malaysian who is alleged to be the leader of the group, two Rohingya, and one Indonesian.
Hamid (photo) told a press conference in Bukit Aman today that the group had plotted the attacks to seek "revenge" over the death of firefighter Mohamad Adib Mohd Kassim in the wake of the Seafield Sri Mahariamman Temple riots last November.
"The arrests also led to the seizure of a CZ 9mm pistol, 15 bullets and six improvised explosive devices, each approximately 18cm in length, smuggled in from a neighbouring country and intended for use in the planned attacks," he said.
According to Hamid, Bukit Aman's Counter-terrorism Unit had detected the cell earlier this month, and arrested the four men between May 5 and May 7 in Terengganu, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.
When quizzed about the identities of the high-profile individuals targeted by the group, Abdul Hamid replied that the information was "too sensitive for me to reveal".
He added that the cell had been in operation in January and largely communicated via WhatsApp.
Beyond the planned attacks on non-Muslim houses of worship, Hamid revealed that one of the Rohingya group members arrested had admitted to being a supporter of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
The man, who was a refugee, aimed to launch an attack on the Myanmar embassy in Kuala Lumpur, as well as to return and fight in Rakhine state.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian member of the group was a 49-year-old factory worker who had planned to head to Syria.
All four suspects admitted to being a member of the IS cell, which is believed to be linked to a prominent Malaysian IS member in Syria.
Hamid said all four are suspected to have breached Chapter VIA of the Penal Code on offences related to terrorism and will be investigated according to procedures under Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012.
He added that police are also on the hunt for three other suspects - two Malaysian men with a last known address in Taman Bedong, Kedah, and an Indonesian with a last known address in Banting, Selangor.
- M'kini
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/475963
Syndicate smuggling Indian nationals at Perak-Thai border crippled
ReplyDelete24 MAY 2019 / 10:39 H.
IPOH: The Perak Immigration Department has crippled a human-trafficking syndicate which has been smuggling Indian nationals into Europe for the last 10 years with the arrest of three masterminds comprising a local family of three – a man, his wife and their son.
Its director Kamalludin Ismail said in the four-day operations which began on Monday, three police personnel – a sergeant and two constables aged between 22 and 57– were also detained together with 45 Indian migrants.
“The modus operandi would be the Indian nationals would be brought in by a syndicate which would contact the husband-and-wife team who would look for civilians to take them across the Malaysia-Thailand border before sending them to Europe,” Kamalludin said in a press conference held at the Home Ministry Complex here late last night.
He added that the role of the police personnel would be to arrange for the transportation and drive the Indians nationals across the border.
Commenting further, Kamalludin said each of the Indian nationals would have to pay up to RM5,000 to be smuggled into Thailand before heading on to Europe.
He said in the operations, the Immigration Department seized cash amounting to RM13,750, several handphones, two motorcycles and three cars, and all the detainees were being investigated under various Immigration Acts including the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007.
He added that the operations were carried out with the cooperation of the Royal Malaysia Police and the Malaysian Border Security Agency. — Bernama
- theSundaily.my
https://www.thesundaily.my/local/syndicate-smuggling-indian-nationals-at-perak-thai-border-crippled-CI903499
Alarmed by growing trafficking, US wants to do more in Mekong region
ReplyDeleteNirmal Ghosh, US Bureau Chief, PUBLISHED: JUL 25, 2019
WASHINGTON - The United States is set to beef up its approach to Mekong countries, pledging more financial assistance with an eye on combating transnational organised crime.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to attend Asean-related meetings in Thailand in the first week of next month. Sources say he will pledge more financial assistance to countries in the Lower Mekong Initiative - Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam - to beef up training and assistance to governments and law enforcement.
The objective is to better tackle growing trafficking in methamphetamine and wildlife and natural resources, which rides on endemic corruption and weak law enforcement.
This will also put more muscle into the LMI, which grew out of former president Barack Obama's "pivot to Asia" but thus far has been perceived by many as strong on messaging but thin on content.
The seizure in Singapore on July 21 of 11.9 tonnes of pangolin scales and 8.8 tonnes of elephant ivory - a record for Singapore - being shipped from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Vietnam, coming just four days after an extensive UN report warned of the expanding reach of transnational criminal organisations, was a reminder that more robust action is needed, analysts say.
The meth trade emanating principally out of de facto autonomous zones of northern Myanmar has also exploded. Meth from Myanmar has been found across the wider region. In March 2019, 2.1 tonnes were found in Johor, Malaysia. In December 2017, 1.2 tonnes were found in Perth, Australia.
According to investigations, the meth found in Johor was trafficked from Myanmar through Laos and Thailand. The shipment found in Perth came from Myanmar via Indonesia.
Mr John Whalen, a retired US Drug Enforcement Agency official based in Yangon, told The Straits Times: "The problem in Myanmar particularly is you have weak law enforcement, so it's a breeding ground in some respects for organised crime. The police in particular are very low-paid so they are easily corruptible; the military particularly in outlying areas is easily corruptible. All along the process people are paid off, and not just in Myanmar but on porous borders of the region."
"I think the US should be doing more," he added.
With Myanmar's transition to an elected government in 2011, the US was able to open up the relationship with Myanmar, lifting sanctions and providing training, but not to the level necessary, he said.
Cont. Below...
In an e-mail, Mr Jeremy Douglas, Bangkok-based regional representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said: "Massive syndicates concentrating industrial levels of synthetic drug production in ungoverned parts of Myanmar are shipping great distances using the great infrastructure of the region, laundering huge profits across the Mekong."
Delete"Unless the conditions that have allowed organised crime to innovate and expand the drug business here are addressed, it will continue to grow," he warned.
"Asean is simply not capable of addressing organised crime and synthetic drugs alone, and needs to work at the highest levels with key dialogue partners like the US, China, Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea and the UN. The business does not stop at the borders of the region. It is not possible to get around the fact that countries of Asia Pacific, or at least the western part of the Pacific and North America, need to come together at leadership level to prioritise taking on organised crime."
The US sees drug and wildlife trafficking - and related money laundering - as a global problem.
"Over time, international criminal networks are meeting up with each other, there is interaction between criminal elements in one region connected to another," Ms Kirsten Madison, US Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), said in an interview.
"Criminal organisations are becoming much more evolved criminal multinational businesses in some respect," she said. To work on how the money is moving, and to work regionally, is a growing imperative.
The INL works with foreign governments to combat money laundering, terrorism financing, migrant smuggling, corruption, and cyber, intellectual property and environmental crime, and wildlife and drug trafficking among others.
"We often talk about counter-narcotics issues, but the reality is that transnational organised crime is operating across a lot of spheres," Ms Madison said. "And when you look at wildlife trafficking, not only is it disturbing from the perspective of loss of species and environmental impact, but it is an enormous source of funding for criminal actors. And to be successful, criminal actors need to corrupt and poison institutions."
Interceptions of contraband show that seizures alone are failing to deter traffickers, Mr Justin Gosling, an independent consultant on transnational wildlife trafficking, told The Straits Times.
"What's missing is basic detective work - exploring every reasonable line of inquiry to exhaustion. In most cases, that starts with the country detecting the crime communicating with every other country involved so that they can initiate their own investigations," he said.
"That's what we mean by international cooperation. Agencies like Interpol must be more engaged in their core function - to help national enforcement agencies coordinate inquiries, and collate evidence and intelligence."
- The Straits Times
- https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/alarmed-by-growing-trafficking-us-wants-to-do-more-in-mekong-region
China’s border town opens gateway to Southeast Asia
ReplyDeletePublished: 7 August 2019 Zhou Jin & Zhang Li
BEIJING (China Daily/ANN) - Pingxiang is taking advantage of its proximity to Asean countries to build strong transport and trade links.
Staff at the Friendship Pass in Pingxiang, a border city in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, wake up daily to the noise of cargo trucks. Their rumbling engines are testimony to the booming trade between China and Vietnam.
Busy with exports from South and West China, as well as imports from Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam and Thailand, trucks line up waiting to pass through the border checkpoint.
Huang Chengjie, a customs agent, buzzes around the trucks on his motorcycle, co-operating with his partner to help client companies clear customs between China and Vietnam.
Huang works from 9 am to 9 pm, making dozens of trips between the two countries’ checkpoints every day.
In 1992, Pingxiang was listed as one of the border cities for opening-up by the State Council. In 2001, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed to build a free-trade zone, making Guangxi a focal point for co-operation with the bloc. The regional body has been the largest trading partner of Guangxi for 19 consecutive years.
When President Xi Jinping visited Guangxi in 2017, he urged the region to make full use of its geographical location, coastlines, rivers and border areas to promote opening-up and play a bigger role in the Belt and Road Initiative.
The BRI has greatly increased Guangxi’s trade with ASEAN countries, which has brought huge opportunities for Pingxiang, said Meng Jianghua, an official of the administrative committee of the Pingxiang integrated free trade zone.
To prompt the border city to play its part in the initiative, authorities in Pingxiang have been trying to facilitate customs clearance by adopting an information management system to simplify the process.
Meng said customs clearance for exports takes about 48 minutes, which is 20 minutes quicker than before the system was adopted. It takes only 10 minutes for imported goods to pass through customs, he added. The daily number of trucks passing through their gates has increased from 800 to 1,600 at its peak, he said.
Cont. Below...
Shaping as trade hub
DeleteIt is hard to imagine that the bustling border city was once scattered with mines. Hundreds of thousand of mines were laid along the border during the confrontations between China and Vietnam from 1979 to 1989, according to Xinhua.
Kafeng, a village near the Friendship Pass adjacent to Vietnam, was one of the minefields.
In the 1980s, in order to make a living, villagers had no choice but to secretly conduct cross-border trade with Vietnam, selling necessities like bicycles, buckets and flashlights to the neighbouring country, said Wei Zeng, a Party official in the village.
Many traders were injured or killed by the mines. “Life was not easy at that time, they had nothing to do but to take the risk,” he said.
The situation began to improve when Pingxiang started opening up. Demining operations were carried out at the border area from 1993 to last year.
After three large missions to sweep for mines and establish boundary line, the dangerous historical legacy has been cleared and fields handed over to locals.
Most of the villagers in Kafeng now transport agricultural products like fruit, peanuts and cassava imported from Vietnam and sell them in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. They earn an average monthly income of about 7,000 yuan ($995) to 8,000 yuan, according to Wei.
The development and opening-up of the border area has benefitted the villagers, he added.
Pingxiang is connected to Vietnam by rail and road. Its geographical location means it is the most convenient trading hub and the key land route to Vietnam and other ASEAN countries. Meng, the administrative committee official, said poor infrastructure of transportation initially hindered trade.
But after more than 20 years of investment and construction, border trade in Pingxiang is now free-flowing and profitable. The city’s foreign trade increased from 6 billion yuan in 2005 to 89 billion yuan in 2018, ranking among the top in China’s “land ports”, according to the local bureau of statistics.
“In 2011, when my company first settled in the free trade zone, there were only a few dozen trucks. But now, at least 1,000 trucks cross through the port daily,” said Zhang Zhihui, manager of the Overland Total Logistics Services Co based in Guangxi. It takes about eight days for Chinese goods to be exported to Singapore using the land border crossing, he said.
Amid the trade frictions between China and the United States, some Chinese companies have relocated their manufacturing bases to Vietnam, Meng said. “They need to transport raw material to Vietnam, which has stimulated the logistics business in Pingxiang,” he said.
The largest exports to Vietnam are electronics, followed by clothing and commodities from Zhejiang province, while imports are mainly fruit and agricultural products from Vietnam, Thailand and other ASEAN countries. “Vietnam is not just a partner of Guangxi, it is a potential market for all of ASEAN that will bring more opportunities for the port,” Meng said.
Vietnam is paying more attention to the Belt and Road Initiative and has been promoting the synergy between the “Two Corridors, One Economic Circle” initiative and the BRI, said Liang Shuhong, a professor at the China-ASEAN Research Institute of Guangxi University.
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Cross-border workforce
DeleteThriving border trade between Guangxi and Vietnam has also seen more Vietnamese workers in Pingxiang in the past few years.
In Vietnam, Le Thi Hoai worked eight to 12 hours in a mobile accessories factory every day, earning at most 2,200 yuan a month.
Since last year, the 22-year-old has found a more rewarding job in Pingxiang. After five months’ working in a factory making furniture panels, she now manages and trains around 20 Vietnamese workers.
Her job pays about 3,500 yuan a month, with better working and living conditions.
“I like China and enjoy working here, and my language skills can be used to help Vietnamese workers communicate with Chinese,” said Le who taught herself Chinese.
Zhang Tianjun, a human resources official in the city, said since China and Vietnam started workforce co-operation in 2017, nearly 70,000 Vietnamese workers have moved to Pingxiang.
Vietnamese can legally work in Pingxiang on monthly renewable visas and enjoy higher salaries as well as insurance coverage.
Pingxiang has also set up a crossborder workforce management centre to help streamline the visa application process.
According to Zhang, most Vietnamese work at commercial trading posts at the borders, as well as the integrated free trade zone nearby, in industries like cargo handling, textile processing and transportation.
Zhang said cross-border workforce co-operation had helped clamp down on illegal work and entry, and enhanced management of foreign labourers. Pingxiang’s labour supply is shrinking as more Chinese workers take up jobs in economically advanced regions. The inflow of Vietnamese labour has eased the shortage, Zhang said.
Liang said abundant and low-cost Vietnamese labour will attract more labour-intensive companies to invest in the city. Last year, two-way trade between Guangxi and Vietnam reached 174.9 billion yuan, according to the Nanning Customs. The trade volume between Guangxi and ASEAN reached 206 billion yuan last year, an increase of 6.3 per cent on 2017 accounting for 50.2 per cent of the region’s total foreign trade.
Its geographic advantage has prompted Guangxi to join in the construction of the New International Land-Sea Trade corridor, which is a new focus for the local government.
As part of the BRI, the corridor is a trade and logistics passage jointly built by provincial regions in western China and Singapore under the framework of an intergovernmental co-operation initiative covering finance, aviation, logistics and transport, and information and communications technology.
Liang said Guangxi should make full use of geographical advantage and deepen its relationship with ASEAN to promote its industrial development to enhance its co-operation with the bloc.
- Eleven Media Group Co., Ltd.
- https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/chinas-border-town-opens-gateway-to-southeast-asia
Human traffickers leave 6 Rohingya starving in abandoned building in Hat Yai
ReplyDeleteThe Thaiger
Published on July 30, 2019
Six Rohingya were left to die in an abandoned building located in Hat Yai, Songkhla. Members of the group eventaully left the building in search of food and officials are now searching for more hiding in the area. They had been waiting there for 5 days. Thai Police were notified by nearby villagers yesterday trying to assist the victims of the human trafficking gangs in southern Thailand.
They told police that a total of 37 Rohingya victims were smuggled into Thailand by human trafficking agents. Thailand is often used as a passageway from the Burmese as they travel, principally, to Malaysia.
Out of the 6, there was 1 woman and the rest were men. They came out of hiding in starvation asking villagers around the area for food to eat in Tha Chang, Bang Klam Districts.
An agent had left them in the abandoned building The Rohingya have been starving for 5 days. The villagers said they felt extremely sorry for them and decided to notify the officials.
The agents told them that they had to hide from officials and couldn’t continue their journey.
Police General Suchart Theerasawat from the Children Women Families Protection and Anti Human Trafficking Centre ordered a search for the rest of the Rohingya victims. Locals in the area were advised to notify officials if any Rohingya are spotted as their health is at serious risk.
- Workpoint News
- The Thaiger
- https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/crime/human-traffickers-leave-6-rohingya-starving-in-abandoned-building-in-hat-yai
New Rules, New Debts: Slavery Fears Rise for Migrant Workers in Thailand
ReplyDeleteThomson Reuters Foundation on 30 August 2019
PHNOM PENH/RAYONG, Thailand—When Leng Lyda swapped Cambodia for a fishing town in Thailand hoping to find a job in the seafood industry, he was ready for hard work. But he wasn’t prepared for the delay, or the debt.
The 22-year-old landed a job as soon as he arrived earlier this year, but without the right to work, he spent three months living rough on the docks and racking up debts while his employer processed the papers to hire him as a migrant worker.
“All I can do is wait,” Lyda said, sitting in a ramshackle cafe as Cambodians dragged giant nets onto trawlers behind him.
“After, I have no choice but to work for him until I repay the debt,” he said, explaining that he would start his job owing at least 30,000 Thai baht ($980) to his employer due to the registration fee and other expenses. “My fate is in his hands.”
Millions of migrant workers from Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos toil in Thailand’s low-skilled sectors, where limited state oversight and unscrupulous employment practices leave many vulnerable to exploitation and modern slavery, activists say.
The Southeast Asian nation last year launched an overhaul of the registration process for migrant workers, granting them the same labor rights as local hires, including access to free healthcare, pension contributions and child allowances.
In the first phase of the revamp, the government aims to ensure two million legitimate migrant workers are registered afresh—a process that must be carried out by employers but paid for by workers earning as little as 10,000 baht a month.
Visas, work permits and health checks—the conditions of the new agreement—cost a total of about 6,700 baht.
However migrants and labor activists said that employers, middlemen and brokers are inflating the cost and saddling workers with fresh debts—trapping many in exploitative workplaces as they struggle to pay off what they owe.
Debt bondage is one of the world’s most prevalent forms of modern slavery, which affects 610,000 people in Thailand, shows the Global Slavery Index by rights group Walk Free Foundation.
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“Edge of society”
DeleteDozens of migrant workers in the eastern province of Rayong told the Thomson Reuters Foundation they had been charged up to 25,000 baht by their employers to be registered under the new system—almost four times the cost set out by the government.
“(Migrant) workers (in Thailand) mostly get their information from the employers and brokers who take advantage of them and profit by keeping a percentage of their pay,” said Sa Saroeun with the Raks Thai Foundation, a legal aid charity.
“Migrant workers live on the edge of society, afraid to do wrong, so whatever their bosses tell them, they will pay,” added Saroeun, who works to inform migrants about their legal rights.
The labor ministry is telling migrant workers the real costs of registration with the new system and encouraging them to report employers who charge higher fees, said Suwan Duangta, inspector-general at the ministry’s department of employment.
“Workers are not able to submit requests on their own,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “If the employers charge more, the workers can file a complaint to the department, and then the department will ask the employer to return the money.”
Yet charities that help migrant workers said they had little confidence in the state’s message finding its intended audience.
Thailand has three million migrant workers on its books but the United Nations’ migration agency (IOM) estimates there are at least two million more working illegally across the country.
But the overhaul is unlikely to encourage undocumented workers or new arrivals seeking work to become registered, according to Reuben Lim, an IOM spokesman in Thailand.
Informal fees, time-consuming visits to government agencies, and confusion over legal processes have long dissuaded migrants from obtaining legitimate jobs, both activists and workers said.
“Many migrant workers continue to believe that the cumbersome process does not outweigh the speed, flexibility and cost-effectiveness of irregular channels,” Lim of the IOM said.
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Stuck
DeleteWhen about 30 Cambodian factory workers were informed of the new system at a workshop in Rayong in June, just six of them said they would be able to cover the registration cost up front.
The rest told the Thomson Reuters Foundation the only option was to ask their bosses to pay the fee on their behalf, then become indebted to them and face deductions from their wages.
Bosses often baulk at the lengthy registration process and instead turn to middlemen, according to labor activists who say this practice increases migrant workers’ debts with no guarantee that the terms of the repayment will be transparent or fair.
“There’s still no mechanism to ensure that the deduction will be legal,” said Chonticha Tangworamongkon, director of the Human Rights and Development Foundation, which provides legal aid to migrants.
Like many other migrants across Thailand, Cambodian construction worker Mao Malis has no idea how much money she owes her boss—or how long it will take to clear the debt.
“For now, it’s impossible to change employer,” said Malis, whose employer in Ban Phe—a fishing town 200 km (124 miles) south of the capital, Bangkok—takes about 15 percent of her 11,000-baht salary each month to repay her registration costs.
“He has invested in me, so I am stuck here until he agrees that I’ve paid everything back.”
- The Irrawaddy
- https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/asia/new-rules-new-debts-slavery-fears-rise-migrant-workers-thailand.html
Ethnic human trafficking charges
ReplyDeleteAndrew Nachemson and Lun Min Mang on Friday, December 13, 2019
Three people, including one Chinese national, have been arrested on human trafficking charges for allegedly sending Myanmar women from Kachin State to China without work permits. They were caught after they allegedly beat one of the women, who then escaped and alerted police. Nine women were rescued, while a Chinese national is on the lam.
UNICEF put out a statement mourning the death of a nine-year-old boy who was killed in Rakhine State while still wearing his school uniform. The UN body called for the Tatmadaw and AA to “ensure the full respect of the civilian character of schools”.
- Frontier Myanmar
- via Email
Two drug smugglers killed by soldiers in Chiang Rai, drugs seized
ReplyDeletePublished 3 days ago on December 28, 2019 by May Taylor
Two drug runners have been shot and killed by soldiers in the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai. They were shipping 600 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine (ice) which was seized in the operation.
The men were killed during a gunfight between a group of drug runners and border police after the Pha The Muang military task force detected 15-20 men making their way through a village in the Mae Sai district yesterday afternoon.
The men were ordered to stop for a search and questioning but failed to comply, instead opening fire on the task force. In the exchange of shots that followed, two of the drug runners were shot and killed.
The Chiang Rai Times reports that 600 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, concealed in 20 sacks, were found in the area. The haul is thought to have a street value of around 300 million baht.
The commander of the Pha Muang task force says drug smugglers will frequently mingle with New Year travellers as they attempt to smuggle narcotics from border areas in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai provinces.
Methamphetamine tablets and crystalline versions, aka. ‘ice’, is routinely trafficked from northern Thailand’s Golden Triangle, where the Ruak and Mekong rivers intersect with Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, to other countries in South-East Asia and further afield to Australia and New Zealand.
In 2018, a record 120 tonnes of ‘ice’ and methamphetamine pills were confiscated in the Asia-Pacific region, with over half the seizures occurring in Thailand. The trade is worth between 30 – 61 billion US$ a year, with seizures so far proving ineffective in making much of a dent in the problem.
SOURCE: Chiang Rai Times
- The Thaiger
- https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/crime/two-drug-smugglers-killed-by-soldiers-in-chiang-rai-drugs-seized
Two Thai soldiers face rare murder charges in restive south
ReplyDeletePublished on Dec 26th, 2019
Two soldiers in Thailand’s south have been charged with the murder of civilians, a military spokesman said yesterday, in a rare rebuke in the insurgency-torn region where rights groups have long demanded greater transparency.
The two turned themselves in on Dec 20 and are now out on bail, Internal Security Operations Command spokesman Pramote Prom-in said. He gave no details about the victims.
“There will be an investigation and we will follow the legal procedures,” he said.
The charges come months after a nationwide furore over the death in a separate case of Abdulloh Esormusor, a suspected insurgent who fell into a coma after interrogation at an army camp.
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The Thai military rejected allegations of torture and urged the public to wait for the result of an official inquiry.
A decade-old separatist insurgency in predominantly Buddhist Thailand’s largely ethnic Malay-Muslim southern provinces has killed nearly 7,000 people since 2004, says Deep South Watch, a group that monitors the violence.
- Reuters
- Mkini
- https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/504894
Pregnant foreign wife turned away at M'sian border
ReplyDeleteBernama on 2 Dec 2020
A seven-month pregnant Chinese national married to a Malaysian living in Singapore has been barred from entering Malaysia and now risks deportation back to her country.
The letter refusing entry to the 27-year-old woman stated the rejection was done under Section 8 (3) of the Immigration Act 1959/1963.
The Malaysian husband, who asked to be identified as Yong, said the refusal of entry on Monday (Nov 30) at the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex in Bukit Chagar has put the couple in a quandary as his wife cannot stay for long in Singapore.
“Previously, she was working in Singapore holding a work permit but due to Singaporean rules and regulations, foreign workers cannot deliver in this country. Since she’s pregnant, the work permit had to be cancelled,” he told Bernama in a phone interview.
Yong said he could not sponsor her as a dependent on his employment pass because, as a store manager, he did not meet the minimum fixed monthly salary requirement of S$6,000 (RM18,000).
Neither can he accompany her across the border, as he did not want to risk losing his job as he would have to be gone for a month due to quarantine requirements.
After she was turned away at the border, Singapore issued her a 14-day special pass to stay in the country. Upon expiry, she will have to leave or be deported.
Yong, who hails from Kluang, Johor, said Malaysia was their best hope not to be separated and to ensure the safety of their unborn child as his wife would not have to travel very far to be with his family, who will be taking care of her.
He said his wife had all the requisite documents for entry, including MyTravelPass permission to enter, a Letter of Undertaking guaranteeing payment of Covid-19 quarantine costs and their marriage certificate, which they registered with the Malaysian government.
He added that his wife did not have a Long-Term Social Visit Pass (LTSVP), however, his wife planned to apply for it once she was in Malaysia.
Immigration Department of Visa, Pass and Permit Director Syahmi @ Muhammad Syahmi Jaafar said not having a LTSVP should not be a reason to deny the woman or any other foreign spouses entry should they have permission.
“It’s a rare case to reject foreign spouses,” he said, adding the government was trying hard to help Malaysians to reunite with their foreign family members.
He said he would investigate what happened while also expressing confidence in his officers.
Malaysia has tightened its entry restrictions since March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Foreign spouses without the LTSVP, or spouse visa, have been affected especially as they were not allowed to enter until August, when the government allowed foreign spouses and children without the LTSVP.
Recently, the government eased restrictions further to allow in foreign spouses from 23 banned countries.
Section 8 (3) of the Immigration Act of 1959/1963 lists a variety of prohibited migrants, including those who cannot support themselves, with a criminal record, suffering from mental illness and planning to overthrow the government.
- Bernama
- Mkini
- https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/553560