The United States has issued its 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report, listing the world’s worst nations for human trafficking.  Malaysia’s Foreign Minister has noticed that the very worst countries are predominately Muslim, and he is very unhappy—not because people in Malaysia are being exploited and sold into slavery, but because the American report “alienates” Muslims.

Malaysia dismissed yesterday possible US sanctions over human trafficking and warned Washington of alienating Muslims after it blacklisted mostly Islamic countries.

The US last month ranked Muslim states — Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Qatar — as among the worst human trade offenders, and said they may face sanctions.

“We are not bothered about…the sanctions,” Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said. “I don’t think we need to respond to that sort of pressure.”

“The US really needs to be friendly to Muslim countries,” he told retired Malaysian diplomats.

Reality check for Mr Albar: The United States is merely the bearer of the bad news that your government is failing to protect citizens and visitors.  It’s an old story: If you don’t like the news, attack the messenger.

Here’s some of what the US report had to say about Malaysia (scroll about halfway down this page):

Malaysia is a destination country, and to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for women and children trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation; it is also a destination for men, women, and children who migrate voluntarily to Malaysia seeking employment, but who are later subjected to conditions of forced labor as domestic workers, or in the agricultural, construction, or industrial sectors.
. . .
The Government of Malaysia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.

Mr Albar says his government will soon introduce legislation preventing human trafficking.  He’d better get moving on that pronto if he wants to avoid economic sanctions.

Previous related posts: