Why Some Migrants Are Willing To Be Smuggled Into Malaysia

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Many migrants are vulnerable to exploitation, say activists.PETALING JAYA: An activist fighting for migrant and refugee rights has cited the high cost of obtaining work visas and the red tape involved in immigration procedures as two of the reasons foreign workers enter Malaysia illegally
“Regular migration can be very expensive and the bureaucracy is heavy,” said Adrian Pereira of the North-South Initiative in an interview with FMT
He said he had been told this was why some foreigners seeking work in Malaysia would choose to engage the services of traffickers
In cases involving migrants with low literacy levels, he added, traffickers would exploit their ignorance of immigration procedures
These uneducated foreigners were especially vulnerable to exploitation, he said
“Many actors deceive them into thinking they are migrating using regular channels when it is in fact smuggling and trafficking.”In other cases, Pereira said, traffickers would smuggle in foreigners who could not get work visas because they were on the immigration blacklist
Tenaganita executive director Glorene Das.Recently, a Thai police official said he expected incidents of human trafficking across the border to reach a record high this year because of the demand for cheap labour in Malaysia
Human rights group Tenaganita has cited weak governance as one of the reasons for a reported increase in incidents of human trafficking into Malaysia
The group’s executive director, Glorene Das, said a monitoring mechanism was not in place to ensure the effective enforcement of laws, policies and procedures

Pereira agreed. “We have also heard stories from migrants of how corruption helps traffickers,” he said. - FMT

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