US senator wants Malaysia out of TPP over human trafficking

A US senator says Malaysia must be kept out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership due to its “abysmal slavery record”, Huffington Post reported today.

According to the report, Democratic Senator Robert Menendez had previously worked with US President Barack Obama to allow Tier 3 nations – the lowest position that a country engaged in modern-day slavery can receive from the US State Department – to participate in Obama’s trade agreements.

Malaysia, which ranked a Tier 3 in the State Department’s 2014 Trafficking in Person (TIP) report, is one such country.

However, Menendez in a subsequent op-ed published in Roll Call and cited by Huffington Post said that the discovery of mass graves at human trafficking camps at Wang Kelian near the Thailand-Malaysia border should “strengthen our resolve to add this fundamental human rights principle to our trade policy”.

The senator is now urging the House to ensure his provision blocking Malaysia’s membership in the trade agreement becomes part of the final legislation that would give Obama fast-track authority on such deals, the paper said.

“With those images fresh in our minds, with new revelations of the scope of the trafficking problem in Malaysia and other countries coming every day, now is the time for our colleagues in the House to add their voice to a clear statement of bipartisan American values: no fast track for human traffickers,” Menendez was quoted as saying.

Malaysia’s human rights record came under scrutiny after the discovery last week of 139 graves and 28 human trafficking camps near the Thailand-Malaysian border in Perlis. Police said the number and size of the camps suggested that they may have housed hundreds of people.

Earlier last month, Malaysia also came under fire for its handling of the Rohingya boat people crisis, which saw thousands of refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh stranded at sea after being abandoned by human traffickers.

Rights groups have long accused Malaysian authorities of not doing enough to contain human-smuggling.

On Monday, US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Migration and Refugees Anne C. Richard said Malaysia’s ranking in the 2015 TIP report would not be affected by the country’s handling of the Rohingya crisis.

However, she urged Malaysia to work closely with the United Nations refugee arm UNHCR to solve the current crisis and handle the refugees who had come to the country.

Source: Malaysian Insider