2007-06-15 13:22:00 -
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysia will start enforcing a new law to fight human trafficking later this year, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Friday, as he slammed the U.S. for blacklisting the country for allegedly not doing enough about the problem.
Syed Hamid said Malaysia was disappointed when Washington lumped it together with
15 other countries including Cuba, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Syria in a blacklist in its annual «Trafficking in Persons Report.
He criticized the U.S. for acting as «investigator, prosecutor and judge,» saying the report didn't take into account Malaysia's efforts to fight the crime including a new law that is expected to be passed by parliament this month.
He told reporters he expected it to go into effect before end of the year.
«As far as we are concerned, Malaysia is a country that does not encourage trafficking in persons,» he said. «We will have the necessary enforcement to prevent the use of Malaysia as a point of transit and trafficking in persons.
The Star newspaper said the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Bill carries a penalty of up to 20 years' jail and a fine of up to 500,000 ringgit (US$142,857; ¤104,286) for human traffickers, while providing protection to victims.
Foreign ministry officials confirmed the details but couldn't comment further.
In its 2006 report, the U.S. State Department on Tuesday downgraded Malaysia from a watch list to a blacklist «for its failure to show satisfactory progress in combating trafficking in persons.
It cited the Malaysian government's failure to prosecute and punish traffickers, to provide adequate shelters and services to victims, and to protect migrant workers from involuntary servitude.
Malaysia and the other countries on the blacklist face possible sanctions for not doing enough to stop the yearly flow of about 800,000 people across international borders for the sex trade and other forms of forced and indentured labor.
About 80 percent of the victims are female and up to half of them children, and most are seeking to escape poverty.
