In denial of a human trafficking problem

By Marina Mahathir

I must say that this headline really grabbed my attention: Malaysian brothel unearthed in pigsty (Asian Gazette Gazette, Dec. 9, 2004). At first glance, it sounded like something really kinky was going on in our Malaysian backwoods.

It turns out that some innovative person decided to capitalise on the insatiable appetites of some men in semi-rural Selangor by running a brothel disguised as a pig farm. Now, that’s creativity for you. It only came to light when the wives of these men started to question why they should want to spend so much time among pigs, especially at night.

In case anyone missed the story, it wasn’t that the men had a particular fondness for canoodling with pigs. In fact they were there to keep company with lithesome young women from China who were, according to our oh-so-delicate police, “more than just waitresses”. In which case, you have to wonder who were actually the pigs. (And what did the pigs think of all these goings-on in their backyard?). Anyway I nominate this the best story this year, for the way it manages to highlight the many absurdities of Malaysian life.

More seriously, it also points out the sheer absurdity of denying that there is sexual trafficking in Malaysia. There have been countless stories of women from China and other countries who have been rescued from prostitution in this country. Many had come here thinking they were getting legitimate work. In the case of this one, the women thought they were contracted to work on a pig farm. It just goes to show how desperate poor women in China must be to agree to go overseas to work on pig farms even though presumably they must be rather comely.

When women are brought from one country to another under false pretences, it is called trafficking. According to humantrafficking.org: “Human trafficking refers to the transportation of persons for forced labour, sexual exploitation or other illicit activities. It is estimated that more than 1 million people are trafficked annually around the world; some experts say it could be double that.

“Human trafficking has become a global business that generates huge profits for traffickers and organized criminal groups. Because of its clandestine nature, human trafficking is likely to remain an increasingly underreported crime. Therefore, establishing reliable statistics on human trafficking remains a challenge worldwide.”

Yet, here in Malaysia there is great denial that anyone is trafficked into our country. We claim to be only a transit point, that is, people come through our country on their way to somewhere else. Well, rural Malaysia where this pigpen was located is hardly on the way to anywhere. According to the UN Organisation for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), “findings confirm that the majority of victims of human trafficking are women and children, and sexual exploitation is the most common form of such abuse. Persons are typically recruited from moderately poor countries, transported through countries that provide safe routes, and end up in more affluent parts of the world. Asia, the former Soviet Republics and Africa are the major regions of origin.

“Also, some new specific insights have been gained, such as that Central Asia and Eastern Europe currently act mainly as a transit area for trafficked persons, or that Asia, excluding Japan, is now as much a source as a destination. The main destination regions can be found in the industrialized world and in Asia. The database was established under the Global Programme against Trafficking in Human Beings (GPAT) of UNODC’s Centre for International Crime Prevention.”

So in all likelihood, we are a destination country, not a transit country. Even if we are a transit point, do we not have an obligation, a humanitarian one, to stop this illicit activity within our borders?

Yet, what has our reaction been? More often than not, we blame the women for coming here to entice our men.

We attach no blame to the men for providing the demand that allows for such inhumane activity to happen.

We should be aware that not only are foreign women and children being trafficked into our country for sexual exploitation but our women are also trafficked elsewhere for the same purposes. According to the 1999 US Department of State Human Rights Report, “Malaysian women are trafficked for sexual purposes mostly to Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, but also to Japan, Australia, Canada, and the United States. Women from Malaysia, who are usually ethnic Chinese, also reportedly have been trafficked into Macau...law enforcement authorities in Malaysia believe that the women are trafficked by Chinese criminal syndicates.”

Yet where are the organisations to look into this human trafficking issue? Do we, yet again, simply close our eyes, laugh at stories about pig farm brothels and tut-tut about foreign women out to seduce our poor innocent men?

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